UTICA – With every match it plays and every victory it attains, the Cazenovia boys tennis team makes a bit more history.
And none was more satisfying than Monday’s 3-2 win over New Hartford at Utica Parkway Courts that guaranteed, for the Lakers, a berth in the first-ever New York State Public High School Athletic Association Division II tournament.
Up until 2019, only individual singles and doubles players could win state titles. But NYPHSAA instituted a new state team tournament for Division I (large schools) and Division II (small schools), whose inaugural edition had to wait two years until the COVID-19 pandemic subsided enough for state competition to resume.
Fayetteville-Manlius had already won Division I honors by taking the Class A team title, but Class B, C-1 and C-2 teams all fit into the small-school category.
Thus, Cazenovia, who won the Class C-1 team title on May 18, had to win twice to earn that trip to the state tournament, first doing so May 21 when it pulled out a 3-2 decision over C-2 champion Cooperstown.
Now came the match with New Hartford, and the Spartans put points on the board in singles, Cazenovia’s Traian Cherciu falling to David Fenner 6-4, 6-3 as Garret Lounsbury lost 6-3, 6-3 to Evan Lyga.
Meanwhile, in doubles the Lakers countered with two strong wins of its own. Andrew Falson and Gabe Reagan worked past Bryan Cho and Leo Padula 6-3, 6-1, with Cy Lurie and Carter Ruddy even better in a 6-1, 6-1 romp over Deen Kaakour and Kenneth Kowalczyk.
Thus it all hinged on third singles, where Cazenovia’s Jake Wardell faced New Hartford’s David Berg. Down 4-1 to Berg in the first set, Wardell fought back to a tie-breaker and then won it 7-4, going on to take a tight second set as the 7-6, 7-5 decision sent the Lakers forward.
On Saturday, Cazenovia faces the Section VII champions, the winner to face the Section II champions May 31 to see who would advance to the June 10 NYSPHSAA championships at the USTA-Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadow, Queens.
In the meantime, Cherciu, along with the Lakers’ pair of doubles teams, would return to Utica and compete last Tuesday in the sectional state qualifier for the traditional NYSPHSAA tournament that takes place this weekend.
Cherciu won his first-round match over Onondaga/Westhill’s Shay Smyth 7-6, 6-4, only to fall 6-0, 6-2 in a quarterfinal rematch with Fenner, who advanced to the state tournament.
Lurie and Ruddy won their own rematch with Kaakour and Kowalczyk 6-4, 6-3, leading to a quarterfinal where Baldwinsville’s Max Funicello and Nick Licciardello beat them 6-1, 6-0. Falso and Reagan lost their opening-round match to Berg and Padula 6-1, 6-2.
Representing Chittenango at the state qualifier, Josh Boulter and Luke Dahlin lost their opening-round match to Auburn”s Michael Clark and Riley Fitzgerald 6-1, 6-3.
