Heading into the decisive portion of its regular-season slate, the Cazenovia boys tennis team could not afford any slips if it wanted to stay near the top of the OHSL Liberty division standings.
And the Lakers got a season-defining win last Wednesday afternoon against long-time power Cazenovia, riding strong doubles play and a singles star turn by Nate Romig to a 3-2 victory over the Brothers.
It started with Teddy Coughlin and Dan Gavilondo pairing up to beat Ayo Oguntola and Max Lewis 6-4, 7-5, with Aiden Kalteski and Griffin Monahan getting a 6-4, 6-2 win over Will Holstein and Matt Potenza.
Up in singles, Mitch Romig got overwhelmed by Ben Vlassis 6-0, 6-0, with Liam Flannery falling to Shivam Nanvati 6-0, 6-1. But Nate Romig dominated his first singles match with Dean Vlassis and prevailed 6-3, 6-1 for the clinching point.
Another big match took place on Thursday, Cazenovia facing undefeated Westhill, with the result turned around as the Lakers lost to the Warriors by that same 3-2 margin.
Easily winning in singles, Nate Romig blanked Jackson Bradley 6-0, 6-0, with Mitch Romig handling Mike Ferrara 6-1, 6-1. However, Flannery lost, 6-2, 6-1, to David Bleskoski.
Then Westhill claimed both doubles points, with Coughlin and Gavilondo falling to Tom Chaddock and Ryan Rolince 6-4, 6-4, plus Kalteski and Monahan taking a 6-2, 6-4 loss to Conor Mahoney and Nick Sauro.
A non-league match on Friday saw Cazenovia challenge Fayetteville-Manlius. Nate Romig won in first singles over Taran Judge 6-4, 6-1, but Mitch Romig lost to Rohan Dhawan 6-2, 6-2 as the Hornets ultimately prevailed 4-1.
Before all this, the Lakers dominated last Monday’s match with Phoenix, prevailing 5-0 as Mitch Romig, in first singles, shut out Evan Baldini 6-0, 6-0. Coughlin took a turn in singles to stop Josh VanGorder 6-0, 6-0 as Flannery stopped David Burgess 6-1, 6-0.
Though it took a bit longer in second doubles, C.J. Monroe and Jake Walburger prevailed, 6-3, 7-5, over Ethan Listowski and Alex Olschewske, with Katleski and Monahan pairing up to get a 6-1, 6-1 win over Jeff Cooper and Ryan Lange
Chittenango met up with Marcellus last Monday afternoon, and won both points in doubles, yet still took a 3-2 defeat to the Mustangs.
Sean Austin and Ben Cyr, normally singles players, worked together to beat Justin Costa and Dan Wrona 6-0, 6-3, while Zach Falkenburg and Matt Lanphear prevailed again, handling Nate Murphy and Matt Vitale 6-1, 6-2.
However, the Bears could not break through in singles. Brian Schermerhorn fell to Noah LeFever 6-0, 6-0 as, by those same scores, Evan Edwards lost to Andrew Kammer. David Mullin lost, 6-2, 6-0, to Shawn Manke.
Rebounding on Tuesday, Chittenango blanked Bishop Grimes 5-0, starting in singles where Edwards beat Jeff Wang 6-2, 6-3 as Roberts routed Harry Hu 6-0, 6-1 and Griffen Smith turned back Zed Weigand 6-2, 6-1.
Falkenburg and Lanphear continued to do well in doubles, beating Sean Moran and Jason Zhang 6-1, 6-2, with Cyr and Austin taking even less time to beat Renny Breazeale and Aiden Keenan 6-1, 6-0.
But the Bears lost, 4-3, to East Syracuse Minoa Friday afternoon, the key match coming in second singles when Cyr played a tremendous first set, yet still lost, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, to the Spartans’ John Kipping.
Austin handled Kelvin Cheng 6-1, 6-0 in singles, while David Mullin shut out Devin Letterman 6-0, 6-0. Falkenburg and Lanphear survived a 6-7 (10-5), 6-3, 6-4 doubles battle with Bryant Pham and Ben Houseman. ESM won the other matches in straight sets.
Then, on Saturday, Chittenango had its own match against undefeated Westhill and lost, 5-0, the big match coming in doubles where Austin and Cyr paired up and lost, 7-6 (8-6), 2-6, 6-1 to Chaddock and Rolince. Lanphear, in singles, fell to Bradley 6-3, 6-3.
