By the time it would reach CNY Counties League play, the West Genesee boys tennis team already would own some momentum thanks to a pair of wins, including last Monday’s 7-0 romp over East Syracuse Minoa.
Ryan Joyce was part of the singles sweep, topping Matt Brown 6-3, 6-2, while John Northrop handled Ben Houseman 6-1, 6-1 and Chris Upwood rolled to a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Kelvin Cheng.
One doubles match was forfeited, but in the three that were contested, Alex Argiro and Jimmy Harter stopped Caleb Wilkinson and John Kipping 6-0, 6-2, with Mannara and James Plunkett beating Jack Callahan and David Demazure 6-0, 6-0. Noah Ruston paired with Erik Shanahan to beat Dan Rivers and Jason Chad 6-0, 6-1.
Then, in Wednesday’s league opener, WG handled Cicero-North Syracuse 5-2, dropping both points in singles, but seeing the doubles teams of Harter-Argiro, Plunkett-Mannara, Northrop-Ruston and A Mahmoud-Erik Shanahan all win without dropping a set.
Up in singles, Stefan Atanasov lost, 6-0, 6-0, to Connor Millias, with Upwood fighting hard in a 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 defeat to Justin Kegebein. But Joyce made it two singles wins for the week, routing Zach Kubala 6-1, 6-0.
WG would prevail again on Thursday, handling Liverpool 6-1. Mannara won in singles over Brandon Davis 6-1, 6-0, with Upwood beating Caleb Munski 6-4, 6-0 to offset Argiro’s 6-1, 7-5 defeat to Evan Maestri. The closest doubles match had Plunkett and Harter pair up to beat Alex Alejo and Ben White 6-3, 6-2.
Marcellus fell 5-0 to Cazenovia in its April 5 season and then went up against 3-0 Christian Brothers Academy last Monday afternoon, and again the Mustangs were unable to get on the board in a 5-0 defeat to the Brothers.
Of the three singles matches, only Andrew Kammer gained any games in a 6-1, 6-1 defeat to Dean Vlassis. Shawn Manke and Quinn Clarke lost 6-0, 6-0 matches to, respectively, Ben Vlassis and Shivam Nanavati.
It was a bit closer in doubles, where Dan Wrona and Tyler Guerrina fell to Andre Oguntola and David Hoag 6-0, 6-4, while Noah LaFever and Justin Costa ran into Tom Daviau and Zach Popp and took a 6-2, 6-0 defeat.
Despite these setbacks, Marcellus was able to break the skid Thursday afternoon by edging Onondaga 3-2. Sweeping both doubles matches, the Mustangs had Manke and LaFever beat Corey Guyder and Max Marcy 6-4, 6-0, while Costa and Wrona paired up for their own straight-sets win.
Moving to singles, Guerrina dropped a first-set tie-breaker in a 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 defeat to Taylor Featherstone, with Con Clarke falling to Zach Hay 6-3, 6-0, But the Mustangs got the clinching point in first singles when Kammer rolled past Dan Kelly 6-2, 6-0.