So much of how girls tennis players from Cazenovia and Chittenango proceeded at last week’s Section III state qualifying tournament at Drumlins depended on where they ended up in the draw.
It didn’t work out much for the three Lakers that were in the field, as singles player Alex Galle and the doubles team of Laura Connor and Julie Silverman both had to go up against top seeds in the opening round.
In Galle’s case, it meant facing the top seed, New Hartford’s Sarah Corasanti, a four-time Section III champion and past participant in the state tournament. Corasanti only took two sets to defeat Galle 6-0, 6-0.
Meanwhile, in doubles, Connor and Silverman found themselves facing the no. 2 seeds from Oneida, Brianna Laureti and Lauren Skibitski. Though they earned a couple of games in the first set, Connor and Silverman still lost, 6-0, 6-2.
The results were a bit different for Chittenango’s doubles team of Coralee Everett and Morgan-Shae Gondeck.
In the first round, Everett and Gondeck met Clinton’s Antonia Cardamone and Elizabeth Militello in the first round and proved quite impressive, the Bears’ pair winning in straight sets 6-4, 6-3.
Still, this put Everett and Gondeck in the quarterfinals against the top seeds from Fayetteville-Manlius, Katerina Atallah and Maggie Bonomo, who would drop just one game in beating Everett and Gondeck 6-1, 6-0.
As it turned out, each of the opponents the Cazenovia and Chittenango players lost to would advance to the state tournament. Attalah and Bonomo won the doubles division, while Laureti and Skibitski finished third. In singles, Corasanti beat CBA’s Rena Steele in the finals.
