Mikayla Mannara and Katie Viau are eying a return to the girls tennis state championship tournament, and the West Genesee duo started to take steps toward that goal with victories in last week’s Section III Division I tournament.
Mannara and Viau entered the tournament at Liverpool High School as the no. 2 seed, and rolled to a 6-1, 6-1 sweep over Grace Baranick and Emily Townsend (Auburn) in the first round. Then, in the quarterfinals, Mannara and Viau routed Allison Delaney and Emily Faldeau (Baldwinsville) 6-1,6-0
That assured a berth in the state qualifier this week, but Mannara and Viau weren’t done, knocking off the Fayetteville-Manlius pair of Patrice Calancie and Martha Welker 6-0, 6-2 in the semifinals.
This set up Thursday’s Division I title-match showdown with F-M’s top pair of Katerina Atallah and Maggie Bonomo. Though they made it to a second-set tie-breaker, Mannara and Viau lost to Atallah and Bonomo 6-2, 7-6.
Two other WG pairs were in the doubles bracket. Angelna Llanos and Noelle Thurston lost a 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 battle to Calance and Welker in the round of 16, with Anastasia Mello and Phoebe Nelson falling to Atallah and Bonomo 6-0, 6-1.
In Division III sectional play at Syracuse University’s Skytop Courts, Westhill saw its doubles team of Grace and Katie Lesselroth also reach the state qualifier.
The Lesselroth sisters made quite a comeback to beat CBA’s Allison Brown and Mary Kilmartin 1-6, 6-4, 6-2, following it up in the quarterfinals by knocking off Lowville’s Maryam Kirch and Abby Rockwood in a 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 epic.
Though they lost in the semifinals 7-6, 6-2 to Cazenovia’s Laura Connor and Julie Silverman, the Lesselroth sisters will be in action again next Tuesday at Drumlins for the state qualifier, joning Mannara and Viau. Only the top three doubles sides advance to the Oct. 27-29 state tournament in Latham.
Elsewhere, Westhill had Cami Cortez and Zoe Hynes win in the opening round 8-6 over LeRyiah Buckingham and Camryn Sullivan (Camden) before a 6-3, 6-7, 6-4 defeat to Skaneateles’ Lily Datz and Rachel Feeney.
In singles for Westhill, Kaleigh Danaher won, 6-2, 6-2, over Hope Allyn (Skaneateles), and was one win from getting to the state qualifier before a 6-1, 6-1 loss to CBA’s Gieselle Vlassis in the quarterfinals.
Marcellus also had doubles teams in the sectional Division III field. Elaina and Madeline Mahoney won, 8-7, over CBA’s Grace Catalano and Anna Sasser before a 6-2, 6-0 loss to Cazenovia’s Laura Connor and Julie Silverman.
Maura Gosson and Caroline Keegan fell in the round of 16 to Haley Dekin and Emily Kogut 6-1, 7-5, with Mikayla Cusick and Alyssa Goodwin taking an 8-2 loss to Cazenovia’s Abby Burrell and Meg Milmoe.
