Having got past a serious challenge from Baldwinsville on Sept. 13, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls tennis team plunged into the second half of its regular-season SCAC Metro division slate.
The Hornets hosted Liverpool last Tuesday afternoon, and quite like their original meeting on Sept. 9, the Warriors proved resilient as F-M worked hard for a 6-1 victory.
It was in doubles where Liverpool grabbed a point and nearly snatched another, only to see Alexis Ahn and Lexi Kellish rally for the Hornets to turn back Olivia Magnarelli and Crystal Morgan s 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
The teams of Maya Mckenzie-Camilla Wojtasiewicz and Natalie Hugo-Brooke Tester each won in two sets. Up in singles, Phoebe Wang battled past Gabby Underwood 6-4, 6-1 as Anna Manta handled Diana Kozenytako 6-0, 6-1 and Samhitha Adavikolanu claimed a 6-2, 6-1 win over Kelly Geiwitz.
F-M had a far easier time of it in Thursday’s 7-0 shutout of Syracuse East. None of the trio of Angela Iskander, Samhitha Adavikolanu and Trisha Adavikolanu lost a game in any of their singles matches, with the doubles matches the same except for Ahn and Zogg prevailing 6-0, 6-2 over Rosealeenna George and Roshika Sharma.
Private-school rivals went head-to-head last Tuesday afternoon, and Manlius-Pebble Hill rolled to victory over Bishop Grimes, the Trojans taking a 7-0 decision.
One singles match was forfeited, but in those that were contested, Parmees Fazeli got past Katie Knittel 6-1, 6-0 as Genevieve Morrow had a 6-3, 6-1 win over Michela Marturano.
Over in doubles, the closest match involved Amatees Fazeli and Caroline Mezzalingua, who defeated Sarah Falgiatano and Sofia Ziankoski 7-6, 6-2. Kaelie Ahn and Zhijie Han won 6-1, 6-4 over Brina Deppoliti and Nadia Fenu as the teams of Emma Gross-Eden Hildebrandt and Sophia Menacho-Fariel Migeed also won in two sets.
East Syracuse Minoa earned a 4-3 victory over Oswego last Monday entirely on the strength of its four doubles teams.
Katie Schmidt and Megan Volz had a tough first set, but went on to beat Laura Cummings and Grace Deland 7-5, 6-3. A close second set marked Victoria Bondarneko and Dorie Karandy’s 6-2, 7-5 win over Emily Blake and MalloryWeigelt.
Elsewhere, it wasn’t as close. Julia Barnwell and Alana Day handled Erica Henderson and Courtney Mills 6-1, 6-2 as Taylor Lynch and Lauren Postma won over Ruhma Khawaja and Kaila Loadwick 6-1, 6-1. In singles, Jessica Vollmer lost, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2, to Victoria Crisafulli.
Then the Spartans made it back-to-back wins on Wednesday, handling Fulton 5-2. Here again, ESM won all four doubles matches in straight sets, with Bondarenko and Jade Burgen pairing up to work past Kaitlin Clingerman and Gracie Dempsey 7-5, 7-5 as, in singles, Lizzy Phillips won a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 battle over the Red Raiders’ Katelyn Perkins.
