Unbeaten in the regular season and untouched in the post-season, the Fayetteville-Manlius and Christian Brothers Academy girls tennis teams both left Utica Parkway Courts Friday with Section III championships.
The Hornets’ Class A title came with a 7-0 shutout over Auburn, while the Brothers toppled top seed Oneida 6-1 to earn the Class B crown, helped in no small part by the straight-sets wins by its strong trio of singles players.
Rena Steele had the closest of the three matches for the Brothers, but still beat Brianna Laureti 6-4, 6-2. Gieselle Vlassis handled Emily Marshall 6-1, 6-0 as Grace DelPino put together a 6-3, 6-1 win over Sydney Lusher.
In doubles, Mary Kilmartin and Alison Brown lost in straight sets, but in a three-set comeback Grace Glowaki and Aubrey Mills beat Mattie Hicks and Sophia Skinner 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. Mikayla Santulli and Grace Coyne beat Lauren Skibitski and Anna Hood 6-4, 7-6 as Grace Catalano and Mary K ilmartin got past Molly Moyer and Meghan Friske 6-1, 6-3.
To shut out Auburn, F-M started with Maggie Bonomo handling Celia Mattie 6-1, 6-0 in first singles. While Phoebe Wang defeated Makayla Huntley 6-3, 6-2, Anna Manta survived a tough first set and got a 7-5, 6-3 win over Katherine Brundage.
All of the doubles matches were also won by the Hornets in straight sets. Katerina Atallah and Diana Polovick won, 6-0, 6-1, over Emma Solomon and Lindsay Jarman, with Maddy Drapeau and Keara Polovick getting past Alexis Calkins and Anna Streeter 6-4, 6-0.
Also in doubles, Patrice Calancie and Martha Welker stopped Grace Baranick and Daisy Townsend 6-1, 6-3 as Cassie Wojtasiewicz and Rachel Liu beat Sophie Lesch and Sydney Whitford 6-2, 6-0.
F-M had faced Baldwinsville in Wednesday’s semifinals. Exhausted from a two-day, 4-3 win over Liverpool in the previous round that involved five different three-set matches, the Bees had little left for the Hornets, who shut them out 7-0.
In singles, Bonomo beat Emily Faldeau 6-0, 6-2, with Atallah beating Hannah Gold 6-2, 6-0 and Manta handling Taylor Tripodi 6-1, 6-1. The closest of the four doubles matches had the Polovick sisters get past Brooke Tutor and Paige Tromblee 6-4, 6-4 as the teams of Drapeau-Wang, Calancie-Welker and Liu-Wojtasiewicz all won in two sets.
CBA had rolled through its half of the Class B bracket against two other Tri-Valley League opponents, starting with last Monday’s 7-0 romp over no. 7 seed Whitesboro in the quarterfinals. Neither Steele nor Vlassis lost a game in singles, and DelPino didn’t take much longer to beat Isha Smith 6-1, 6-2.
On the doubles side, Kilmartin and Catalano had to go to a third-set tie-breaker to preserve the shutout, edging Ashley Kim and Shelby Miller 4-6, 6-1, 7-6. Otherwise, the teams of Santulli Coyne, Brown-Anna Sasser-Alison Brown and Glowaki Mills did not lost more than two games in any of their six sets.
In the semifinals, it was CBA against no. 3 seed New Hartford, and the Brothers prevailed 5-1, getting straight-set wins from the doubles teams of Santulli-Coyne, Brown-Sasser and Kilmartin-Glowaki, but finding it a bit more challenging in singles.
Steele lost, 6-0, 6-3, to New Hartford’s top player, Sarah Corasanti, and DelPino lost the first set to the Spartans’ Grace LaFountain, but still pulled out a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 decision as Vlassis rolled to a 6-0, 6-1 win over Nicole Faroukh.
The Class B semifinals saw Oneida end the title hopes of Jamesville-DeWitt in a 7-0 shutout. The Red Rams were unable to win more than three games in any set in any of the seven matches, as in first singles Tara Pollock fell to Brianna Laureti 6-3, 6-0 and, in first doubles, Margaret Frank and Olivia DeHoog took a 6-1, 6-3 loss to Anna Hood and Julianna Cavanagh.
Before that, J-D shut out no. 5 seed Indian River 5-0 in the quarterfinals, with Inka Gajra and Anna Sofia Hege each winning equal 6-3, 6-3 matches over, respectively, Alexis Cruz and Natasha Archabald, while Tara Pollock topped Alexzha Garcia 6-1, 6-2.
Over in doubles, Margaret Frank and Olivia DeHoog beat Ahunna James and Kelly Daphness 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) as Lena Jones and Olivia Frison DeAngelis rolled to a 6-1, 6-0 decision over Kara Nichols and Korrine Patterson.
Manlius-Pebble Hill and Bishop Grimes both fell out of the sectional Class C tournament in the quarterfinal round as the Trojans lost, 7-0, to no. 5 seed Cazenovia and the Cobras lost 4-1 to no. 3 seed Lowville.
In MPH’s case, without Anna Szombatha or Genevieve Morrow it had to forfeit one singles match to Cazenovia and, in the others, Halle Erwin fell to Lucy Langan 6-3, 6-2 as Parmees Fazeli lost a 6-2, 6-0 decision to Alex Galle.
Moving to doubles, the closest of the four matches saw Louisa Morrow and Lily Grenis take a 6-3, 6-3 loss to Laura Connor and Julia Silverman, with similar scores emerging in Rebecca Church and Talia Braverman’s 6-2, 6-4 loss to Charley Harris and Kaitlyn Puffer.
Unlike MPH, Bishop Grimes did earn a point against Lowville when Katie Knittel, in second singles, routed Maria Young 6-1, 6-1. But Liz Wolaver lost, 6-0, 6-1, to Bailey Zicari, with Michela Marturano falling to Melissa Nortz 6-3, 7-5. The Cobras’ doubles teams of Olivia Minor-Kate Matthews and Abby Fletcher-Abby Wilkinson did not win a game in either of their two matches.
