Thanks to their strong finishes in a pair of Section III tournaments the previous week, three girls tennis singles players from Cazenovia and Chittenango made their way to Drumlins for Tuesday’s opening rounds of the sectional state qualifier.

At the home of Syracuse University women’s tennis, the Lakers’ Alex Galle and Laura Connor, along with the Bears’ Brooke DiFlorio, took to the court, hoping that they could get to Thursday’s semifinals and finals, where three berths in the Oct. 27-29 state tournament in Latham would be at stake.

Of them, Galle was the only one to make it out of the first round, and it wasn’t easy.

Up against New Hartford’s Grace LaFountain, Galle won the first set 6-4, only to drop the second set by that same 6-4 margin. It was the only one of the 16 singles and doubles matches in the opening round to go beyond two sets.

Just when it was needed, though, Galle played a strong third set, shutting out LaFountain 6-0, but without much time she had to return for a quarterfinal against a very familiar foe.

Christian Brothers Academy’s Gieselle Vlassis had beaten Galle in the sectional Division III final on Oct. 19 in Oneida. Now indoors, the result was the same, Vlassis defending her top seed by defeating Galle 6-0, 6-0.

The singles draw had Connor and DiFlorio in the same quarter of the bracket. Had they won their first-round matches, these two would have met each other in the quarterfinals.

That never got close, though, as Connor battled Fayetteville-Manlius’ Anna Manta through a close first set, only to fall 7-5, 6-0, with DiFlorio taking a 6-2, 6-1 loss to Jamesville-DeWitt’s Tara Pollock.

Manta went on to a fourth-place finish, while Vlassis suffered a finals defeat to Manta’s F-M teammate, Katerina Atallah, yet still advanced to the state tournament.