ONONDAGA COUNTY – After two wins to open its season, the Liverpool girls tennis team took its first blemish of 2021 when it went up against West Geneese last Tuesday afternoon.
The Warrriors’ 5-2 defeat to the Wildcats did include a pair of doubles points. Two games from defeat in straight sets, Diana Kozenyatko and Olivia Magnarelli rallied to beat Kayla Latone and Margaret Mello 2-6, 7-5, 6-1.
Another three-set classic had Sheridan Bryerton and Bianca Vaccaro outlasting Ava Amodio and Hannah Sparks 7-6, 3-6, 7-5, while Kelly Geiwitz and Jasmine Rawda took a 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 loss to Angelina Allen and Calina Olson.
Up in singles, Angelica Underwood got to a first-set tie-breaker but fell to Katie Viau 7-6, 6-3, with Gabby Underwood doing the same in a 7-6, 6-4 defeat to Angelina Llanos.
Off until Saturday, Liverpool now challenged undefeated, first-place Fayetteville-Manlius, and made more inroads against the Hornets than any other team it had faced this season.
Kozenyatko nearly got a shutout as she defeated Trisha Adavikolanu 6-0, 6-1. A three-set doubles match saw Angelica Underwood and Meghan Bell rally past Natalie Hugo and Katya Quinn 6-7, 6-2, 6-4.
But F-M still prevailed 5-2, including a first singles classic where Angelica Underwood pushed Anna Manta to three sets, but lost 6-2, 4-6, 6-1. the Hornets won every other match in striaght sets, including Olivia Magnarelli taking a 6-1, 6-4 loss to Angela Iskander.
Earlier in thew eek, Cicero-North Syracuse earned a 6-1 victory over Syracuse West, surrendering its lone point when, in third singles, Jalla Killingbeck dropped a 7-6, 4-6, 11-9 classic to Ava Miles.
Otherwise, Eve Campitello beat Hsar Eh Soe 6-3, 6-0, with Holly Costello beating Eh Hso 7-5, 6-0. One doubles match was forfeited, but the teams of Autumn Brown-Megan Johnston, Golden Duru-Megan Mieves and Isabella Nolan-Mackenzie Wessels dropped just one game in six combined sets.
When C-NS returned Thursday to face Baldwinsville, it lost to the Bees by that same 6-1 margin, spared from a shutout when Brown and Mieves paired up and overcame a first-set shutout to beat Audrey Benton and Ella Tromblee 0-6, 6-4, 6-3.
None of the Northstars’ trio of Costello, Meghan Obleman and Jaila Killingbeck managed to win a game in their singles matches. Campitello and Johnston lost, 6-1, 6-3, to Reagan Doan and Julia Quinn, with Wessels pairing with Alicia Tow and Wessels teaming with Isabella Nolan to take straight-sets defeats.