With a stirring and timely comeback, Cazenovia boys tennis player Nate Romig earned a trip to New York City to battle for a state championship.
Romig’s big moment came in Thursday’s semifinals of the Section III state qualifying tournament at Utica Parkway. To that point, the top-seeded Lakers star had not seen much stress, but that would soon change.
The semifinal pitted Romig against Jamesville-DeWitt’s Peter Hatton, and in the first set Hatton gained quick control, prevailing 6-2, the first time in the post-season that Romig had fallen behind.
Since the top three singles players advanced to the state tournament, Romig had to win here to guarantee a berth. And just in time, he roared back against Hatton, getting even with his own 6-2 win in the second set.
It came down to the third set, and with so much at stake it stayed close, going all the way to a tie-breaker before Romig pulled it out, 7-6, advancing to the finals and guaranteeing his state tournament appearance.
Before this, it was stress-free as Romig, in the round of 16, handled Cooperstown’s Will Weldon 6-1, 6-2 before a 6-1, 6-1 romp over Baldwinsville’s Antonio Marsallo in the quarterfinals.
With the pressure off after his rally to beat Hatton, Romig tried to topple Christian Brothers Academy’s Dean Vlassis in Friday’s final at Syracuse University’s Skytop Courts. Vlassis had lost just seven games in six tournament sets and beat his own brother, Ben Vlassis, 6-0, 6-0 in the semifinals.
Though both Romig and Vlassis were in the state tournament, the final turned into another classic. Romig lost a close first set 6-4 and was two games from defeat when he broke Vlassis’ serve late in the second set and prevailed 7-5, only to have Vlassis make his own recovery to take the final set in another 6-4 decision.
Earlier that same tournament, Mitch Romig went up against New Hartford’s John Robert Corasaniti, and lost in straight sets 6-2, 6-1. Corasaniti went on to lose in the quarterfinals to Hatton.
After the defeat to Nate Romig, Hatton topped Ben Vlassis 6-4, 7-5 in the third-place match and would go to the state tournament with Romig, and Vlassis.
Meanwhile, in the doubles state qualifier, Cazenovia’s Aiden Katleski and Griffin Monahan won a wild opening-round match over Herkimer’s Brett Bala and Joe Perkins, claiming their own third-set tie-breaker in a 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 decision.
In the next round, Katleski and Monahan lost, 6-1, 6-1, to Oneida’s Aidan and Ajay Hicks, just as Teddy Coughlin and Dan Gavilondo saw their run end in a 6-2, 6-2 loss to Cooperstown’s Noah Lifgren and Pierce Snyder.
Chittenango had Sean Austin and Ben Cyr in the field, and they won in the round of 16, topping West Genesee’s Stefan Atanasov and Ben Cyr 7-5, 6-4, only to lose in the quarterfinals to J-D’s Essex Glowaki and Harshal Nanavati 6-1, 6-0.
Glowaki and Nanavati went on to a finals appearance and advanced to the state tournament, joining the star Fayetteville-Manlius duo of Taran Judge and Riley Ma, plus West Genesee’s Matt Mannara and James Plunkett.
