When the top high school girls tennis players gather at Tri-City Fitness Club in Latham next weekend, West Genesee’s Mikayla Mannara and Katie Viau will find it quite familiar.
After all, this same pair was in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association tournament a year ago, falling in the first round and then going 1-1 in the consolation bracket.
With more experience and more confidence this time around, Mannara and Viau make their return after sweeping through the Section III post-season tournaments.
Having won the sectional Division I final on Oct. 19, it was on to the state qualifier, which started last Tuesday at Drumlins, with Mannara and Viau the top seed.
Playing two matches that day, Mannara and Viau easily handled Christian Brothers Academy’s Grace Catalano and Aubrey Mills 6-1, 6-0, and then topped the Fayetteville-Manlius duo of Maddy Drapeau and Cassie Wojtasiewicz 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.
Once they reached the semifinals on Thursday, Mannara and Viau met someone quite familiar – F-M’s Rachel Liu and Keara Polovick, the same pair they beat the week before in Oneida in the Division I title match.
And it had the same result, too, with the Wildcats stars handling Liu and Polovick 6-2, 6-3, which assured a return to the state tournament, but they weren’t done yet.
The final pitted Mannara and Viau against Oneida’s Sydney Lusher and Lauren Skibitski. This would also be Skibitski’s second state tournament appearance, as she advanced to it a year ago with Brianna Laureti.
The first set was the closest of the tournament so far, but Mannara and Viau won it 6-4, then blanked Lusher and Skibitski 6-0 in the second set to take tournament honors.
These pairs are joined by Christian Brothers Academy’s Grace Coyne and Grace DelPino, who beat Liu and Polovick 6-2, 6-2 in the third-place match to gain the final state tournament berth.
In singles, F-M’s Katerina Atallah won the tournament qualifier, rallying in three sets to beat CBA’s top seed, Gieselle Vlassis, while Utica-Notre Dame’s Ellen Lyga beat F-M’s Anna Manta, also, in three sets, earning third place to advance.
