In recent years, whenever the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse girls tennis teams got together, the matches were fairly close and both sides had reason to feel optimistic.
Yet when they played on a hot, hazy Tuesday morning to start the 2018 season, it was all Warriors as it grabbed the entire slate of matches in a 7-0 victory over the Northstars.
All three of the singles matches were decided in straight sets. Angelica Underwood had the closest of them, beating Jenna Wilson 7-5, 6-2 as Kelly Geitiwitz handled Lexi Hnatiw 6-4, 6-1. Julie Schewe did not surrender a game in her 6-0, 6-0 shutout of Krista Feeney,
Moving to doubles, Diana Kozenyatko and Gabby Underwood got it going for Liverpool with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Anna Dwyer and Miranda Szwej, with Aryanna Davila and Crystal Morgans topping Bri Bonilla and Sara Cartier 6-1, 7-5.
Erica Gibbs and Natalie Kidd got a 6-4, 6-3 decision over Teagan Brown and Tina Chen, while Eleni Ioannidis and Cindy Tran rolled, too, defeating Alexa Kulak and Emily Pilz 6-2, 6-1.
Liverpool then went after West Genesee on Thursday afternoon, and it proved quite a match, but the Warriors’ bid fell just short as it lost to the Wildcats 4-3.
A pivotal match came in first singles, when Schewe got within two games of upending WG’s Mikayla Mannara, but still lost 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 as Underwood felt to Katie Viau 7-5, 6-0 and Geitwitz lost to Anastasia Mello 6-4, 6-3.
Swept in singles, Liverpool nearly turned it all around in doubles. Davila and Morgans beat Mi Tran and Emma Yeager 6-2, 6-4, while Gibbs and Kidd beat Greta Hahn and Elise Strachan by those same scores.
In a third-set tie-breaker Kozenyatko and Underwood edged past Angelina Llanos and Natalie Thurston 6-4, 1-6, 7-6, but Ioannidis and Tran could not nab the fourth point, falling to Alyssa Congel and Emma Pinker 6-1, 6-3.
When C-NS took on Baldwinsville that same day, it did get a point in singles, but nothing more in a 6-1 defeat to the Bees.
Wilson earned that point, needing three sets to hold off Hannah Gould 6-4, 6-7, 6-4, while Feeney and Hnatiw took straight-set defeats. IN doubles, one match went to three sets, Dwyer and Szwej falling to Lauren Devine and Hanna Manning 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
