With plenty of aspirations, the Skaneateles girls tennis worked toward the Section III playoffs after a strong finish to its regular season that included back-to-back shutouts.
The Lakers had handled Phoenix 7-0 on Sept. 23, and when it hosted Phoenix last Tuesday at Austin Park, the result was the same as Skaneateles did not let the Tigers get a point on the board.
Ella Danforth rolled past Mexico’s Kim Heagerty 6-0, 6-0 in singles play. Hope Allyn had a 6-0, 6-0 shutout of her own against Mia Morris, while Emma Miller took a bit longer, but still handled Juliana Hernandez 6-1, 6-1.
On the doubles side, Gracie Lee and Marin Doyle prevailed, as did Caroline Hagen and Melissa Biver, who blanked Juliana Smith and Catalyn Hacket 6-0, 6-0. Brinley Walewender and Isabella Kroon won, 6-2, 6-0, over Marisa Ohmann and Kat Zakota as Lily Datz and Rachel Feeney got a 6-1, 7-5 win over Destiny Teach and Emma Tater.
Then Skaneateles took on its Laker namesakes from Cazenovia on Wednesday afternoon, and took a 5-2 defeat, with both of the points coming in doubles.
Miller and Danforth went to the doubles side, paired up and earned a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Laura Connor and Julie Silverman. A single-set match saw Lee and Doyle hold off Kaitlyn Puffer and Charlie Harris 10-8.
Up in singles, Walawender got a turn and lost, 6-2, 6-2, to Lucy Langan, with Allyn falling to Alex Galle 6-0, 6-0 and Kroon taking a 6-1, 6-1 defeat to Julia Barrett. Datz and Feeney lost in doubles to Annika Burno and Lizzy Druke 6-2, 6-4, with Hagen and Biver battling in a 6-2, 6-0 defeat to Abby Burrell and Meg Milmoe.
Given the no. 8 seed for the sectional Class C team tournament, the Lakers hosted no. 9 seed Watertown IHC in the opening round and won a 5-0 sweep, advancing to the quarterfinals against top seed Clinton.
