It was time for the Fayetteville-Manlius boys tennis team to start another quest for another undefeated season, and it met little resistance in last Tuesday’s season opener, a 7-0 victory over the Liverpool Warriors.
To get the singles rolling, Riley Ma beat Evan Maestri 6-0, 6-1. Though he went through a tough second set, Tom Miro still beat Brandon Davis 6-0, 7-5, while Jeremy Zhang had a 6-0, 6-2 win over Caleb Munski. Moving to the doubles side, the teams of Ravi Dhawan-Rohan Dhawan and Nolan Chiles-Joel Farella each won without surrendering a game.
Then F-M handled Syracuse East by that same 7-0 margin on Thursday afternoon. Zhang won, 6-1, 6-0, over Eh Moo See, with Ma and Michael Miller not dropping a game in their singles matches. Combined, the doubles teams of Dhawan-Dhawan, Chiles-Farella, Aaron Costanza-Max Farber-McEntee and Richard Wang-Dillon Judge lost just two games in eight sets.
Off to a 2-0 start, the Christian Brothers Academy boys tennis team made it three wins in a row with another one-sided affair last Monday afternoon, shutting out the Marcellus Mustangs 3-0.
Neither Ben Vlassis nor Shivam Nanavati gave up games in their 6-0, 6-0 singles wins over, respectively, Shawn Manke and Quinn Clarke, while Dean Vlassis worked a bit longer, but still beat Andrew Kammer 6-1, 6-1.
Though pushed in the second set, Andre Oguntola and David Hoag beat Dan Wrona and Tyler Guerrina 6-0, 6-4, while Tom Daviau and Zach Popp handled Noah LaFever and Justin Costa 6-2, 6-0.
As that was going on, Jamesville-DeWitt faced its first serious battle of the season, but won both points in doubles and, thanks to Peter Hatton’s dominant singles effort, earned the clinching point to edge the Lakers 3-2.
Already, J-D had won both doubles matches as Somil Aggarwal and Ishan Gajra paired up to beat Nick Barna and Liam Flannery 6-2, 6-4, while Harshal and Druv Nanavati had an easier time of it, getting a 6-1, 6-0 win over Teddy Coughlin and Griffin Monahan.
So it rode on singles, where J-D’s Robert Dotterer let an early lead get away in a 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 defeat to Nate Romig, while Dan Frank fell to Orson Sproule 6-4, 6-4. So it was up to Hatton, and he had little trouble defeating Mitch Romig 6-1, 6-1.
Then J-D shut out East Syracuse Minoa 6-0 on Wednesday afternoon, with Aggarwal beating Ben Houseman 6-0, 6-0 and Druv Nanavati handling Matt Brown by those same scores. The closest doubles match had Richard Crabbe and Aniket Maini get a 6-2, 6-2 decision over Dan Rivers and Jason Chad.
To end its busy week, J-D blanked Oswego 7-0, saving the shutout when Crabbe won, 6-4, 1-6, 10-6, over Neel Tripathi. Aggarwal beat Nick Holland 6-3, 6-2.
The Nanavati brothers lost just one total game in their singles wins, Druv beating Lucas Shepardson 6-0, 6-0 and Harshal handling Avery Croucher 6-0, 6-1. The doubles teams of Hatton-Dotterer, Gajra-Eric Benaroch and Dhruv Thota-Dan Frank all won in two sets.
Manlius-Pebble Hill would face LaFayette on Wednesday and handle the Lancers 5-0. Trilok Reddy blanked Caleb Gretsky 6-0, 6-0, with Dan Braverman beating Brennon Thrall 6-0, 6-1 and Charlie Mann routing Leanna Crouse by those same scores.
In doubles, Jeff Bush and Harry Chen had a bit of a tough match, but won, 6-2, 7-5, over Lexi Harrington and Jack Grass. Keerthi Martyn and Dan Mezzalingua had a 6-0, 6-2 win over Sophia Powless and Wade Miller.
Bishop Grimes took on Chittenango last Wednesday and suffered a 5-0 defeat, forfeiting a singles match but struggling in the other matches, too, Zach Schell having the closest call in a 6-3, 6-1 first singles defeat to Sean Austin.
But then MPH beat those same Bears on Thursday and beat them 3-2 due to a singles sweep. Reddy started the sweep by beating Austin 6-3, 6-1. Braverman shut out Zach Falkenburg 6-0, 6-0 and Mann handled Mike Ackerman 6-1, 6-1.
ESM dropped its season opener last Monday to West Genesee 7-0. In the closest of the three singles matches Brown lost to the Wildcats’ Ryan Joyce 6-3, 6-2, while in doubles Caleb Wilkinson and John Kipping made some headway, but lost to A lex Argiro and Jimmy Harter 6-0, 6-2.
Before all this, the Spartans lost, 6-1, to Fulton in its April 5 opener, with two matches forfeited and the only point coming when Rivers and Chad, paired in doubles, rallied in three sets to beat Hunter Dudley and Jon Simpson 2-6, 6-3, 6-0.
Yet another 6-1 defeat came on Thursday, with ESM falling to Homer. Cheng could not hold an early lead in a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 defeat to Ben Herman as Bryant Pham lost to Vince Saraceno 6-2, 6-4. In three sets, Caleb Wilkinson and John Kipping fell to Ethan Lunas and Julian Ponirakis 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
