A clean sweep in singles play was the key for the West Genesee boys tennis team as it pushed past Liverpool 5-2 last Wednesday afternoon amid a week that began and ended with local sides dodging wet weather and postponements.
To start that singles effort, the Wildcats’ James Plunkett rolled past Brandon Davis 6-1, 6-1. Stefan Atanasov took a bit longer, but still beat Caleb Munski 6-4, 6-1 as Matt Mannara got a 6-1, 6-2 win over the Warriors’ Anthony Puma.
Moving to doubles, the teams of Alex Argiro-Jimmy Harter and Ahmed Mahmoud-Erik Shanahan each lost in two sets, but the Wildcats still got the clinching points when the teams of John Northrop-Noah Ruston and Ryan Joyce-David Neri both earned their own straight-set decisions.
Westhill nearly got its biggest boys tennis victory in years when it took on Christian Brothers Academy last Wednesday afternoon and notched points in singles and doubles, but still lost, 3-2, to the Brothers.
Conor Mahoney, in third singles, beat David Hoag 6-1, 6-3, which made up for Jackson Bradley falling to Ben Vlassis 6-1, 6-0 and Andrew Doner taking a 6-2, 6-1 loss to Dean Vlassis.
In doubles, the Warriors’ Ryan Rolince and Mike Ferrara beat Shivam Nanavati and Milan Gupta 6-4, 7-6 (7-1), but Tom Chaddock and Connor Catone never got close to CBA’s Tom Daviau and Zach Popp in a 6-1, 6-0 defeat.
But Westhill did prevail on Thursday, topping Phoenix 4-1 in a unique single-set format to eight games in order to beat the rain.
Doner and Bradley won by equal 8-2 margins over, respectively, Aaron Erwin and Ned Greenough, and though Mahoney lost to Devon Burgess 8-6, the Warriors took both doubles points from the Firebirds. Chaddock and Catone beat Josh VanGorder and Sam Stellingwerf 8-0 and Ferrara and Rolince handled Evan Baldini and Brandon Mironti by that same margin.
Marcellus met up with one of its biggest rivals, Skaneateles, on that same Wednesday afternoon and lost, 4-1, to the Lakers, rescuing a point when Andrew Kammer overcame a 6-0 defeat in the first set to beat Joe Ausio 6-3 and 6-0 in the next two sets.
Otherwise, Shawn Manke fell to Connor Driscoll 6-2, 6-0, with Con Clarke losing to Dan Judge 6-0, 6-0. In doubles, Noah LaFever and Justin Costa had a 6-1, 6-0 defeat to Matt Benson and Ryan Bailey as Dan Wrona and Tyler Guerrina lost, 6-0, 6-2, to Jack Lawson and Malcolm Lombardi.
The rain kept Marcellus from having its Thursday match at Pulaski and also prevented West Genesee from playing at Auburn, and the Wildcats were supposed to face Baldwinsville on Friday, but wet weather caused yet another postponement.
