Having come so close to a Section III Class C team title in a 4-3 defeat to Utica-Notre Dame on Oct. 6, the Skaneateles girls tennis team did not have much time to recuperate.
Just three days later, the Lakers were at Syracuse University’s Skytop Courts, battling summer-like heat as it vied for honors in the sectional Division III singles and doubles tournaments.
And it was on the doubles side that Skaneateles succeeded as Ella Danforth and Emma Miller, the top seeds, reached the finals and easily advanced to this week’s state qualifier at Drumlins.
Danforth and Miller routed Mary Buckingham and Brianna Finn (Lowville) 6-1, 6-0, then got past Paige Crandall and Alyssa Stevenson (South Jefferson) 6-2, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.
The semifinal saw Danforth and Miller fall behind Christian Brothers Academy’s Mary Kilmartin and Isabella Mead, only to come back and win it 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, setting up a final against another CBA tandem, Grace Coyne and Grace DelPino.
They had to wait until Friday to play the final at Oneida due to a Thursday rainout. The delay meant that Danforth and Miller would deal both with a strong opponent and much colder temperatures than it had for the early rounds.
In the end, the conditions hardly mattered because Coyne and DelPino overwhelmed Danforth Miller, winning each of the two sets by equal 6-1 margins.
Elsewhere in the doubles bracket, Riley Fouts and Bridget Neumann survived a 10-8 single-set battle with Kim Birmingham and Camryn Sullivan (Camden) but then lost, 6-1, 6-0, to another CBA pair, Grace Catalano and Aubrey Mills.
Marin Doyle and Gracie Lee did not have to go through an opening round, but in two sets lost their first match to South Jefferson’s Savannah Fish and Natalie Strough 6-3, 6-2.
Rachael Feeney, Hope Allyn and Isabella Kroon were all in the singles division, but none got past the round of 16.
Allyn, placed in the main bracket, fell 6-4, 7-5 to Lowville’s Maria Young. Feeney handled Kacey Cashel (Canastota) in a single-set 10-1 match, but then got swept 6-0, 6-0 by CBA top seed Gieselle Vlassis as Kroon lost, 10-1, to Lowville’s Bailey Zacari in the opening round.
