Determined to move to the front of the OHSL Liberty division standings, the Skaneateles boys tennis team began its busiest stretch of the season last Monday afternoon by traveling to Westhill and earning a 5-0 victory over the Warriors.
Each of the singles matches was competitive, but the Lakers swept them as Joe Ausio claimed a tough 7-5, 7-5 decision over Andrew Doner in first singles. Connor Driscoll went to a second-set tie-breaker to beat Jackson Bradely 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), while Dan Judge beat Mike Ferrara 6-3, 6-2.
As for the doubles matches, Skaneateles saw Matt Benson and Ryan Bailey put together a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Colin Catone and Tom Chaddock, with Malcolm Lombardi and Jack Lawson needing three sets to get past Conor Mahoney and Ryan Rolince 6-3, 3-6, 6-0.
Things were quite different a day later, when Skaneateles ran into undefeated Jamesville-DeWitt and could not grab a set in any of the matches during a 7-0 defeat to the Red Rams.
Driscoll had the closest singles match, falling to Somil Aggarwal 6-2, 6-3, with Judge taking a 6-1, 6-2 defeat to Druv Nanavati. Max Hall had a 6-0, 6-1 defeat to Drhuv Thota as Jack Belinski fell to Essex Glowaki by those same scores.
Anthony Panasci and Jack Lawson put up a fight in doubles, yet still lost, 6-4, 6-4, to Dan Frank and Eric Benaroch. Benson and Ausio paired up, but lost to Robert Dotterer and Peter Hatton 6-0, 6-1, with Bailey and Lombardi falling to Ishan Gajra and Tyler Glowaki 6-1, 6-3.
Having absorbed its first defeat of the season following a 4-0 start, Skaneateles quickly returned to winning form on Thursday with an impressive 5-0 shutout of the Chittenango Bears.
Driscoll led the singles charge, beating Keoni Saturnie 6-1, 6-1 as Ausio beat Aaron Norman 6-0, 6-2 and Judge shut out Devin Hodges 6-0, 6-0. After a tough start in doubles, Benson and Bailey rallied past Zach Falkenburg and Sean Austin 4-6, 6-0, 6-0, with Panasci and Lawson beating Ben Cyr and Matt Lanphear 7-6 (10-8), 6-0.
This busy week concluded with Skaneateles handling Phoenix 5-0 on Friday, with the doubles teams of Lombardi-Nick Glaza and Benson-Griffin Olin both winning 6-0, 6-0 matches – Lombardi and Glaza over Ethan Listowski and Scott Barrington, Benson and Olin over John George and Mason Lange.
The singles sweep by Skaneateles over Phoenix included Ausio beating David Burgess 6-1, 6-1, with Matt Oliver handling Evan Baldini 6-2, 6-2 and Belinski beating Brandon Mironti 6-2, 6-1.
