CENTRAL NEW YORK – Warm weather at the start of the week did not last, but at least that window gave area high school boys tennis teams perfect conditions for league matches.
Skaneateles, undefeated and atop the OHSL Liberty division, stayed that way without much sweat against Pulaski, rolling past the Blue Devils 5-0.
Max Karpinski and Marty McNeil had 6-0, 6-0 shutouts over, respectively, Garrett Starbird and Myer Butler as Jake Salzhauer handled Brian Pond 6-0, 6-2.
Hatcher Gutchess and Marcus McClanahan had their own 6-0, 6-0 romp over Austin Dufrane and Caiden Potter, with Nick Cerimeli and Ethan Pickup handling Colton Dufrane and Logan Trump 6-2, 6-2.
And the Lakers kept it up in Wednesday’s chilly conditions, beating Onondaga/Westhill 4-1 despite a first singles match where Karpinski lost, 6-1, 6-2, to Shay Smyth.
McNeil shut out Christian Loomis 6-0, 6-0, with Salzhauer handling Jon Massaro 6-3, 6-1. Between them, the doubles teams of Gutchess-McClanahan and Cerimeli-Pickup lost just one game in four total sets.
OCS/Westhill also lost, 4-1, to Manlius-Pebble Hill last Monday, gaining its only point in first singles, where Smyth beat Anthony Pitts 6-3, 7-6. Massaro pushed Alex Fung to three sets, but took a 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 defeat.
Recovering on Thursday, OCS/Westhill handled Pulaski 5-0, with Smyth, Massaro and Loomis all rolling to singles wins dropping just one game in six total sets. The doubles wins went to the teams of Zane Eldred-Evelynn Loan nad Faith Taylor-Calisthene Vonderweidt.
Marcellus, when facing Chittenango last Monday afternoon, had to lean on its singles players to pick up a 3-2 victory over the Chittenango Bears.
Chris Barbaro got past Micah Alperuto 6-4, 6-1, with Tucker Guerina beating Seth Boulter by those same scores as Matt Vitale got through a second-set tie-breaker to beat Logan Bronner 6-1, 7-6. The doubles teams of Mike Deveroux-Tyler Szalach and Caeden Cox-Dan Fox both lost in straight sets.
Then Marcellus won 3-2 over Mexico on Thursday, seeing the doubles teams of Barbaro-Deveraux and Cox-Fox each claim their matches in straight sets.
Up in singles, Vitale dropped a 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 epic to the Tigers’ Jacob Hill, but Guerina earned the clinching point in a 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 decision over Owen Marsden.
Meanwhile, West Genesee faced the difficult assignment of Fayetteville-Manlius last Monday and rarely could snatch a game from the Hornets in a 7-0 defeat.
Of the three singles matches, only Joe Paoli picked up a game in his 6-0, 6-1 loss to Cameron Lukasik. The closest of the four doubles matches had Nathan Ruston and Ty’san Scott falling to Andy Dalal and Xavier Sul 6-3, 6-0.
In Thursday’s 6-1 loss to Oswego, WG only was spared from a shutout when Noah Ruston beat Zach DeMott 6-3, 6-3, but the Buccaneers won every other match in two sets.
It was the same Friday when the Wildcats fell to Cicero-North Syracuse 6-1, Noah Ruston with another 6-3, 6-3 win, this one over Wyatt Dupell, and the Norhtstars sweeping the rest, including a three-set doubles battle where Paoli and Nate Ruston fell to Peter Gill and Ryan Keil 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.
