For an entire year, the West Genesee girls tennis doubles team of Mikayla Mannara and Katie Viau has waited for another chance to compete in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship tournament.
Thanks to another strong run through last week’s state qualifier at Drumlins, Manarra and Viau will come back, heading to Latham’s Tri-City Tennis Center near Albany and looking to improve on last year’s round of 16 showing.
With the no. 3 seed going into the state qualifier, Mannara and Viau dominated their first-round match last Tuesday against the Fayetteville-Manlius duo of Maddy Drapeau and Diana Polovick, dropping just a pair of games in a 6-2, 6-0 decision.
In the quarterfinals, Mannara and Viau met the Skaneateles team of Lily Datz and Rachel Feeney, who had needed three sets to get past Leila Marhamati and Maya Padula (New Hartford) in the first round. Far fresher, Mannara and Viau rolled again to win, 6-1, 6-0.
Now, in Thursday’s semifinals, the Wildcats’ duo would face the no. 2 seed, Oneida’s Brianna Laureti and Lauren Skibitski. With a state tournament berth at stake, Mannara and Viau battled through a 6-4 first set and then won the second set 6-1.
With the pressure off, WG’s stars met F-M’s top-seeded duo of Katerina Attalah and Maggie Bonomo. Earlier in the tournament, Westhill saw its doubles teams of Grace and Katie Lesselroth drawn against Atallah and Bonomo and lost, 6-0, 6-0.
When it was Mannara and Viau’s turn, they did pick up some games, but not enough to put a big scare into Attallah and Bonomo, who prevailed in straight sets 6-3, 6-2.
Laureti and Skibitski beat CBA’s duo of Grace Coyne and Mikayla Santulli to earn the third and final state tournament berth. They join CBA’s pair of singles stars, Rena Steele and Gieselle Vlassis, plus New Hartford’s Sarah Corasanti, in the Section III contingent heading to Latham this weekend.
