CENTRAL NEW YORK – In a season full of starts and stops and weather postponements, the Cazenovia and Chittenango boys tennis teams would confront one another again last Thursday afternoon.
And it would belong to the Lakers, who were perfect in singles and close to the same in doubles on the way to defeating the Bears 5-0.
Traian Cherciu, with his 6-0, 6-0 romp over Luke Dahlin, began a run where Garret Lounsbury would shut out Logan Bronner and Jake Wardell would do the same against Seth Boulter.
Pushed to a second-set tie-breaker in doubles, Andrew Falso and Gabe Reagan still beat Artie Paul and Jake Simmons 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) as Carter Ruddy and Cy Lurie handled Dylan Bassett and Kaiden George 6-2, 6-3.
Before this, both sides played well last Tuesday, Cazenovia dominating Onondaga/Westhill 5-0 as Chittenango nearly upended unbeaten Skaneateles before taking a 3-2 defeat.
Boulter won for the Bears in singles, topping Skaneateles’ James Lovier 6-4, 6-4, while Paul and Simmons got a 6-2, 6-2 win over Ethan Pickup an Nick Cerimeli.
However, Bronner and Micah Alperuto each lost their singles matches in two sets as Boulter and Dahlin battled hard, but fell to Hatcher Gutchess and Marcus McClanahan 6-4, 7-6 (7-3).
As for Cazenovia, Cherciu’s 6-4, 6-0 win over OCS/Westhill’s Shay Smyth was as close as it got. Lounsbury handled Jon Massaro 6-3, 6-2, Wardell blanked Christian Loomis 6-0, 6-0 and the doubles teams of Reagan-Falso and Lurie Ruddy also had shutouts.
Then, facing Marcellus on Friday, Cazenovia was quite impressive, blanking the Mustangs 5-0 and preserving the shutout when Falso and Reagan,in three sets, rallied past Chris Barbaro and Tyler Szalach 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.
Lounsbury and Wardell both won 6-0, 6-0 singles matches over, respectively, Dan Fox and Tucker Guerina, with Cherciu beating Matt Vitale 6-2, 6-1 as Lurie and Ruddy handled Harry Hoey and Mike Deveraux 6-0, 6-1.
Chittenango defeated Pulaski 5-0 on Friday with Dahlin topping Garrett Starbird 6-3, 6-0 in singles ahead of Bronner blanking Austin Dufrane 6-0, 6-0 and Levi Mullin beating Myer Butler 6-0, 6-1. The doubles teams of Paul-Simmons and Bassett-Boulter did not lose a game between them, either.
