Not wanting the regular season to end, the Liverpool girls tennis team battled West Genesee past sunset last Tuesday night, having been forced by hot temperatures to delay the start of the match.
It didn’t keep the Wildcats from defeating the Warriors 5-2, but Liverpool still had plenty of good moments as it attempted to avenge a similar defeat to WG two weeks earlier in Camillus.
Diana Kozenyatko earned a point in singles, defeating Greta Hahn 6-3, 6-4. Erin Chambrone had a 6-4, 6-1 loss to Katie Viau, with Gabby Underwood pushing Angelina Llanos to a first-set tie-breaker, but falling 7-6 (7-3), 6-2.
In first doubles, the best match of the evening saw Meghan Blake and Julie Schewe win the first set and get within a game of a sweep, only to give that away in a 5-7, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 defeat to Mikayla Mannara and Anastasia Mello.
Giana LaValle and Aryanna Davis prevailed, 6-1, 6-2, over Mi Tran and Emma Yeager, but WG earned the other doubles points as Crystal and Valerie Morgans fell to Phoebe Nelson and Noelle Thurston 6-4, 6-1, with Erica Gibbs and Natalie Kidd nearly extending its match, but losing to Danielle Bertelli and Andrea Andreeva 6-1, 7-5.
Two days later, Liverpool finished the regular season by edging Auburn 4-3, the Maroons coming into the match with a 13-1 record and a regular-season championship in the Salt City Athletic Conference Empire division.
The decisive point coming in a third singles thriller where LaValle trailed Auburn’s Lindsay Jarman and then was pushed to a third-set tie-breaker, but pulled it out 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10-8).
Chambrone beat Makayla Huntley 6-2, 7-5, with Schewe stopping Celia Mattie 6-3, 6-3. Auburn won three of the four doubles matches, but Liverpool gained the other point with another comeback, this one from Gibbs and Kidd, who won, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, over Samantha Lesch and Sydney Whitford.
Five teams decided to participate in the Section III Class A tournament, with Liverpool the no. 5 seed and taking on no. 4 seed Baldwinsville in Monday’s opening round after last Friday’s rainout. The winner would play top seed Fayetteville-Manlius in the semifinals.
