ONONDAGA COUNTY – A quartet of area high school boys tennis teams finally made their way back to the court, having not seen active competition in nearly 23 months.
But it did not translate into victories for either Marcellus or West Genesee in their initial matches, with the Mustangs falling 3-2 to Mexico last Tuesday right after the Wildcats lost 6-1 to Baldwinsville.
Matt Vitale gained a singles point for Marcellus as he beat Mexico’s Adam Clark 6-2, 6-1, while Chris Barbaro lost to Jacob Hill 6-2, 6-0 and Dan Fox fell to Harley Wakeman 6-0, 6-0.
Mike Deveroux and Tucker Guerina gave the Mustangs a doubles point when they beat Lucas Maciejko and Owen Marsden 6-2, 7-5, with Tyler Szalach and Adam Voss losing to Eric Hyde and Connor Shaffer 6-1, 6-0.
As for West Genesee, it was the doubles teams of Matt Mannara and Noah Ruston salvaging the Wildcats from a shutout against B’ville, Mannara and Ruston rolling past Nick Licciardello and Connor Tutor 6-0, 6-1.
Otherwise, the teams of Daniel Good-Jonathan Welles, Michael Colon-Cade Duda and Joe Paoli-Alex Toumbacaris all lost in two sets, with Good and Welles falling to Mason Doan and Leonardo Vona 6-3, 6-1.
In the three singles matches, Ben Paoli, Sam Barth and Denys Tsymbala only managed two games between them in losses to Antonio Marsallo, Eric Smith and Andrew Jung.
Westhill is part of a combined team with Onondaga this spring, and the Warriors got off to a strong start by sweeping Pulaski 5-0 last Monday afternoon.
Between them, the singles trio of Jon Massaro, Paul Okhman and Shay Smyth lost just two games in six sets of singles play. Angelo Carr and Nate Hay paired in doubles to beat Austin Dufrane and Garrett Starbird 6-0, 6-2, with Harsheep Banga and Sophia Featherstone handling Cody Mullins and Logan Trump 6-1, 6-0.
Many of the matches that were supposed to take place late last week got rained out, which should lead to a busy stretch of tennis in May.
