For a long time, area high school boys tennis teams had difficulty earning Section III Class A titles since programs such as Fayetteville-Manlius would sweep their way to the top.
Things changed in 2019, though, and Cicero-North Syracuse earned a victory when Wyatt Dupell prevailed in third singles in last Saturday’s sectional Class A tournament at Fayetteville-Manlius, while Baldwinsville and Liverpool both had strong finishes, too.
Dupell beat Loc Huynh (Utica Proctor) 6-0, 6-2 before a semifinal where he fell behind West Genesee’s Ben Paoli and was two games from defeat, but rallied to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-0.
Compared to that, the final against F-M’s’ Cameron Lukasik was a breeze, Dupell earning a first-set tie-breaker victory and then working past Lukasik 7-6, 6-4.
To reach the final, Lukasik had defeated B’ville’s Leonardo Vona, who was on the brink of a quarterfinal defeat before coming back to beat Oswego’s Sasha Loayza 4-6, 7-6, 6-3. Ultimately, Vona finished fourth.
C-NS’s Ryan Hill nearly won in second singles, beating Colin Bennett (Fulton) 6-0, 6-3 in the semifinals and breaking out in front of West Genesee’s Ryan Joyce in the finals before taking a 1-6, 6-2, 6-3 defeat.
Here, again, B’ville had a semifinal appearance, from Eric Smith, who handled Proctor’s Evan Lyga 6-2, 6-0 before losing to Joyce 6-3, 6-0. But in the third-place match, Smith beat Bennett 6-2, 6-4.
But the Bees’ best finish came from Antonio Marsallo in first singles. Marsallo handled CBA’s Shivam Nanavati 6-1, 6-0 and then met C-NS’s James Corl in the semifinals, defeating him 6-2, 6-2.
However, in the finals Marsallo could not keep up with Fulton’s Eric Shear, who beat him by those same 6-2, 6-2 scores as Corl went on to fourth place with a 6-2, 6-1 loss to Auburn’s William Clark.
B’ville’s Phil Fiorentino and Connor Tutor had to go three long sets, and two tie-breakers, to edge Syracuse East’s Kyle Giardine and Devin Murphy-Stanley 6-7, 6-4, 7-6 and finish third.
Giardine and Murphy-Stanley had defeated C-NS’s Ryan Gallagher and Edwin Hirsh 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 in the quarterfinals after Gallagher and Hirsh swept Sam Cabonaro and James Mock (Auburn) in the first round.
Head-to-head in the first doubles quarterfinals, the Northstars’ Johnathan Corl and Brandon Millias held off the Bees’ Max Funicello and Nick Licciardello 7-6, 4-6, 6-2, before a semifinal defeat to CBA’s Ben and Dean Vlassis.
Liverpool also had, in second doubles, Brayden Cabrey and Jon Kline fall in the quarterfinals to Fiorentino and Tutor 6-1, 6-4. In first doubles, Eli Barbour and Adam Ritter met the Vlassis brothers before Corl and Millias did, dropping a 6-0, 6-0 decision.
The Warriors’ Aiden Barbour lose in the first round of third singles to Lukasik 6-3, 6-2, while in first singles Aaron Alejo nearly won, but fell 5-7, 7-6, 6-3 to Nanavati.
