CENTRAL NEW YORK – A stretch of dry, warm early-April weather gave a group of area high school boys tennis teams the chance to take part in season-opening league matches.
Jamesville-DeWitt went 10-0 a season ago and swept to league and Section III honors. Now the Red Rams set out again and started with a 7-0 shutout over the Auburn Maroons.
Shreyank Bhatt had the closest singles match, but still handled Ryan Stechuchak 6-2, 6-3, while Will Sharlow routed Gabriel Volo 6-0, 6-1 and Anthony Fico topped Brody Wagner 6-0, 6-3.
Each of the doubles matches was also won in straight sets. Mark Bratslavsky and Luke Cantone got past Michael Clark and Riley Fitzgerald 6-2, 6-3 as Dean Bratslavsky and Jacob Price held off Tom Deming and Colby Wagner 6-4, 6-3. The teams of William Parratt-Carson Souser and Daksh Maini-Isaiah Sternberg also prevailed.
J-D also played on Friday, roaring past Cortland 7-0. Each match was a sweep except first singles, where Sharlow rallied from an early deficit for a 2-6 6-4, 10-5 decision over the Purple Tigers’ Tyler Cranfield.
Having dealt with immense off-season tragedy with the death of one of its top players, Christian Cuomo, the team at Christian Brothers Academy now set out to improve on last spring’s 8-3 mark.
Shutting out Chittenango 5-0 last Tuesday, the Brothers got straight-set singles wins from Will Vandemeer, Chanu Minjung and Gabriel Minjung, the latter of which was in the closest match, a 6-1, 6-2 win over the Bears’ Josh Boulter.
Over in doubles, Nate Christaldi and Roy Nasr overcame a tough first set to beat Seth Boulter and Jake Simmons 7-5, 6-1, while Fabrizio Arezzo and Finn Doyle rolled past Luke Dahlin and Artie Paul 6-0, 6-1.
Unable to get a point in its opener, Manlius-Pebble Hill fell to Cazenovia by that same 5-0 margin, with Eric Ma losing in singles to Jake Wardells 6-3, 6-3 as, in doubles, Kevin Fratositanu and Abraham Salamon had a 7-5, 6-2 loss to Evan Molloy and Carter Ruddy.
