What appeared, on the surface, as just another routine late-season victory for the Jamesville-DeWitt boys tennis team was, in fact, something quite special.
During the Red Rams’ 6-1 conquest of Cortland last Wednesday afternoon, Robert Dotterer, a senior who is going to Hamilton College this fall, earned his 100th match victory, the first J-D player to ever reach that landmark. Dotterer did so in doubles, pairing with Peter Hatton in a 6-0, 6-1 sweep over the Purple Tigers’ Damian Brown and Gavin Tabel.
The Rams, who improved to 11-0 this spring, swept all three doubles matches as Tyler Glowaki and Ishan Gajra handled Ruvim Kostiv and Cooper Swartout 6-0, 6-2, with Dan Frank and Dhruv Thota getting a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Dade Hughston and Dan Ruggiero.
Meanwhile, in singles play, Somil Aggarwal lost, 6-2, 6-2, to Cortland’s Garrett Reagan, but Harshal Nanavati won in straight sets, as did Druv Nanavati, who beat Sheridan Crane 6-2, 6-2 as Essex Glowaki beat Dan Ruggiero 6-0, 6-1.
J-D and Cortland had a rematch 24 hours later, and again the Rams won 6-1, only now Dotterer went to singles to get win no. 101 as he shut out Reagan 6-0, 6-0. Aggarwal beat Brian Ngo 6-1, 6-0 as Druv Nanavati blanked Hughston 6-0, 6-0 and Harshal Nanavati beat Nick Djafari 6-0, 6-2.
On the doubles side, Gajra paired up with Tyler Glowaki for a 6-4, 6-0 win over Brown and Tabel. Frank and Thota won, 6-3, 6-2, over Crane and Swartout as Richard Crabbe and Rajat Sharma took the lone blemish in a 6-3, 6-0 loss to Ruggiero and Cobi O’Connell.
Christian Brothers Academy entered last week with a 7-0 record, and went to Austin Park last Monday to take on 7-1 Skaneateles, braving frigid temperatures and leading on its strong singles players to beat back the challenge of the Lakers 3-2.
The key was seeing Milan Gupta, normally a doubles player, switch to singles and earn a 6-3, 6-1 sweep over Dan Judge. Ben Vlassis shut out Connor Driscoll 6-0, 6-0 as Dean Vlassis rolled past Joe Ausio 6-2, 6-0.
This counteracted the Lakers’ wins in both of the doubles matches. Tom Daviau and Zach Popp lost a 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 battle with Ryan Bailey and Matt Benson, while David Hoag, taking Gupta’s doubles role with Andre Oguntola, had a 6-4, 6-3 defeat to Jack Lawson and Anthony Panasci.
Then CBA made it nine in a row with Wednesday’s 5-0 victory over those other Lakers from Cazenovia. Ben Vlassis blanked Griffin Monahan 6-0, 6-0 as Dean Vlassis took out Mitch Romig 6-3, 6-1 and Gupta, in another singles match, beat Jake Walburger 6-1, 6-2.
Cazenovia put strong players in doubles, but Hoag and Shivam Nanavati still rallied in three sets to beat Teddy Coughlin and Dan Gavilondo 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, as Daviau and Popp had an easier time of it, beating Nick Barna and Orson Sproule 6-2, 6-1.
A rematch with Skaneateles on Thursday had the exact same result, CBA edging the Lakers 3-2, and again it was all from singles play. Ben Vlassis beat Judge 6-0, 6-1 and Dean Vlassis topped Ausio 6-0, 6-0 as Gupta handled Jack Belinski 6-3, 6-1. In doubles, Daviau and Popp lost a 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) decision to Benson and Malcolm Lombardi.
This long, busy week for CBA ended with a 5-0 shutout of Marcellus on Friday, with Gupta handling Tyler Guerrina 6-0, 6-2 as the Vlassis brothers rolled to single wins again – Ben over Shawn Manke 6-0, 6-0, Dean over Andrew Kammer 6-0, 6-1.
To keep it going, the Brothers had Daviau and Popp roll past Noah LaFever and Dan Wrona 6-0, 6-1, with Nanavati and Hoag continuing their successful pairing with a 6-0, 6-0 shutout over Quinn Clarke and Dakota Dunbar.
Even East Syracuse Minoa got into the win column on May 5, defeating Central Square 4-3 for its second match victory of the season by getting two points in singles and doubles, which proved enough.
John Kipping won the pivotal match, edging the Redhawks’ Victor Lassere 6-4, 5-7, 10-7, while Caleb Wilkinson had a 7-5, 7-5 win over Lukas Capstraw. In doubles, Kelvin Cheng and Bryant Pham claimed a 6-2, 6-2 decision over Jacob Bourgeois and Austin Grosso. Schad and Dan Rivers also won in two sets.
But when the new week started, ESM lost, 7-0, to Cortland, unable to get a point as David Demazure lost the closest singles match, falling 6-3, 6-2 to the Purple Tigers’ Sheridan Crane. Rivers and Jason Chad lost to Dade Hughston and Dan Ruggiero 6-1, 6-3 as Cheng and Wilkinson had a 6-2, 6-1 defeat to Damian Brown and Gavin Tabel.
In Tuesday’s 6-1 defeat to Auburn, Demazure put the Spartans on the board with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Gabriel Burns. Wilkinson, Jack Callahan and Chad Pontillo all lost in singles, while in doubles Kipping and Ben Houseman battled in a 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) loss to Jacob Wansor and Connor Davia. Chad and Matt Brown lost, 7-5, 6-4, to Matt MicGlire and Shahil Patel.
On Wednesday, during ESM’s 5-2 defeat to Homer, the Spartans were shut out in singles, the closest one Rivers’ 6-0, 6-4 loss to Alex Cottrell, but got doubles points when Cheng and Kipping overcame a terrible start to beat Nate Potter and Ethan Lunas 0-6, 6-4, 6-2. Pontillo and Wilkinson rolled past Jacob Bush and Tommy Britt 6-2, 6-1.
