Make it three consecutive Section III championships for the Cazenovia girls tennis team.
At Utica Parkway Courts Friday afternoon, the Lakers left no questions about who belonged on top in Class C, sweeping Lowville 5-0 to complete a post-season run that included just one dropped point in three rounds.
Just as she had done all season, Alex Galle set the pace in first singles against Lowville, topping the Red Raiders’ Bailey Zicari in straight sets 6-2, 6-4. The other singles matches were even more lopsided as Lucy Langan won, 6-0, 6-2, over Maria Young, with Julia Barrett claiming a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Melissa Nortz.
A tiny bit of tension came in doubles, with Annika Bruno and Lizzy Druke pushed to three sets, but still topping Lowville’s Haley Dekin and Emily Kogut 6-1, 3-6, 6-4. Julie Silverman and Laura Connor only needed two sets to defeat Maryam Kirch and Abby Rockwood 6-1, 6-3.
Earning the sectional team title would require beating three opponents in a five-day span. Cazenovia got started on this run with an impressive 7-0 shutout over no. 5 seed Manlius-Pebble Hill in last Monday’s quarterfinals.
All of the six contested matches were won in straight sets, with one singles contest forfeited to Barrett. Galle did play, beating Parmees Fazeli 6-2, 6-0, while Langan got a 6-3, 6-2 win over Halle Erwin.
Connor and Silverman won, 6-3, 6-3, over Louisa Morrow and Lily Grenis, with Druke and Bruno handling Sara Antonevich and Marina Cousins 6-2, 6-1. Abby Burrell and Meg Milmoe had a 6-0, 6-0 shutout of Eva Englich and Eden Hildebrandt as Charley Harris and Kaitlyn Puffer topped Rebecca Curch and Talia Braverman in a 6-2, 6-4 decision,.
Now, in the sectional semifinals on Wednesday, Cazenovia would face the same Skaneateles side it beat 5-2 exactly one week earlier. Since then, those other Lakers had rattled off sectional wins over Watertown IHC and top seed Clinton, each by 5-0 margins.
Here, the result between the two Laker sides was the same, only this time Cazenovia earned one more point in prevailing 6-1. It swept all four doubles matches, the closest of them a three-set battle where Harris and Puffer outlasted Gracie Lee and Marin Doyle 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
Bruno and Druke met Hope Allyn and Isabella Kroon, normally singles players, and won 6-2, 6-1, with Connor and Silverman getting past Rachel Feeney and Lily Datz 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 as Milmoe and Burrell beat Caroline Hagen and Melissa Biver 6-3, 7-6 (7-2).
Langan, two games from completing a shutout, could not hold on, falling to Ella Danforth 2-6, 7-5, 6-4, but the other singles matches went to Cazenovia as Galle handled Emma Miller 6-3, 6-3 and Barrett blanking Brinley Walawender 6-0, 6-0.
Cazenovia had to wait until Thursday to find out its finals opponent – which turned out to be Lowville after the Red Raiders edged Beaver River 3-2 in the other semifinal. With the advantage of a day of rest and tougher competition throughout its regular season, the Lakers would have little trouble earning sectional honors.
