Baldwinsville boys tennis singles player Alex Shaban would earn a spot in the second singles final during last week’s Section III Class A team tournament at SUNY-Cortland.
After making it through the early rounds, Shaban, in the semifinals, squared off with Fulton’s Ryan Lakik, and rolled to a 6-2, 6-0 victory. However, this meant a final against Fayetteville-Manlius star Jeremy Zhang, and despite winning the first set in a tie-breaker, Shaban took a 6-7, 6-2, 6-2 defeat to Zhang.
In the doubles portion of the sectional tournament, B’ville saw Anthony Pompon and David Rush push their way to the semifinals before running into West Genesee’s Stefan Atanasov and John Northrop, taking a 6-1, 6-4 defeat. But Pompo and Rush earned third place when they shut out Auburn’s Connor Davia and Jacob Wansor 6-0, 6-0.
In first doubles, Scott Ferrari and Sam Damato also reached the semifinals before F-M’s Taran Judge and Chris Lansing beat them 6-0, 6-1. Moving to the consolation final, Ferrari and Damato would, like Shaban, go to three sets and take a loss, falling 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to Fulton’s brother tandem of Anthony and Robert Salerno.
Before the sectional tournaments started, B’ville had one more bit of regular-season work to do, venturing to Camillus to face West Genesee and controlling that match from the outset as it shut out the Wildcats 7-0.
Despite its 10-3 record and the emotions of Senior Day, WG could not stop the Bees as, in singles, Max Funicello survived a tough first set and beat Alex Ruston 7-5, 6-1, while Antonio Marsallo handled Alex Argiro 6-2, 6-3 and Alex Shaban routed John Northrop 6-1, 6-0.
On the doubles side, Ferrari and Damato got a 6-0, 6-0 shutout over David Neri and Ahmed Mahmoud, while Pompo and Rush handled Ryan Joyce and Michael White 6-4, 6-1. Kyle Robinson and Alex Taylor also won in straight sets.
