What was expected to be a big boys tennis showdown between Cazenovia and unbeaten Christian Brothers Academy last Tuesday afternoon did not disappoint.
The Lakers, with strong singles play, nearly took down the Brothers, but its inability to claim either doubles match made the difference in a 3-2 defeat.
Nate Romig survived a tough first set with Dean Vlassis in first singles, moving on to a 7-5, 6-0 victory, with Orson Sproule rolling past David Hoag 6-2, 6-2. Only Mitch Romig took a defeat, falling to Ben Vlassis 6-1, 6-1.
Moving to doubles, Teddy Coughlin and Griffin Monahan had a 6-1, 6-4 defeat to Milan Gupta and Shivam Nanavati. In the closer of the two matches, Nick Barna and Liam Flannery nearly claimed both sets against Tom Daviau and Zach Popp, but still lost a 6-4, 7-5 decision.
A day earlier, Chittenango started the week with its own match against CBA that ended 5-0 in the Brothers’ favor. Mike Ackerman nearly put the Bears on the board in third singles, but dropped a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 decision to David Hoag.
In doubles, Keoni Saturnie and Zach Falkenburg lost, 6-1, 6-4, to Tom Daviau and Zach Popp, with Ben Cyr and Matt Lanphear falling to Milan Gupta and Shivam Nanavati 6-1, 6-2. Aaron Norman had a 6-0, 6-0 singles defeat to Ben Vlassis as Sean Austin lost, 6-0, 6-1, to Dean Vlassis.
Then Chittenango got to face Cazenovia on Wednesday afternoon, and the Lakers prevailed, 4-1, with Nate Romig blanking Austin 6-0, 6-0, and Sproule topping Ackerman 6-1, 6-1 as Norman countered by beating Mitch Romig 6-0, 6-1.
In a tough doubles match, Barna and Flannery did enough to get a6-2, 3-6, 6-1 decision over Saturnie and Falkenburg, while in straight sets Coughlin and Monahan beat Cyr and Lanphear 6-0, 6-4.
Chittenango went from there to a 5-0 defeat to Skaneateles on Thursday, unable to win more than two games in any of the six sets of singles play as Saturnie, taking a singles turn, lost, 6-1, 6-1, to Connor Driscoll. Norman fell to Joe Ausio 6-0, 6-2 as Devin Hodges lost to Dan Judge 6-0, 6-0.
Falkenburg paired with Austin in doubles and led, early, but didn’t hang on in a 4-6, 6-0, 6-0 defeat to Ryan Bailey and Matt Benson. Cyr and Lanphear could not overcome the defeat in a long first-set tie-breaker as they lost to Jack Lawson and Anthony Panasci 7-6 (10-8), 6-0.
This busy week for Chittenango concluded Friday with a 4-1 defeat to Westhill, which pushed the Bears’ record to 2-5.
Austin got a point in singles, beating Andrew Doner 6-3, 6-3, but Cyr lost to Jackson Bradley 6-0, 6-1 as, in doubles, Falkenburg and Lanphear fell to Colin Catone and Tom Chaddock 6-4, 6-4, with Norman and Ackerman taking a 6-2, 6-3 loss to Mike Ferrara and Ryan Rolince.
