SYRACUSE – Accolades continued to pour in for the Baldwinsville girls tennis team even after its historic win over Fayetteville-Manlius for its first-ever Section III Class A team title.
The Bees were a central figure in the ensuing sectional Division I singles and doubles tournaments Oct. 14 at Oneida High School, with the duo of Hannah Gould and Elayna Nesbitt earning the doubles championship.
After a strong run through the early rounds, Gould and Nesbitt met F-M’s duo of Trisha Adavikolanu and Lindsey Chong in what turned out to be an epic championship match.
Each of the first two sets were decided by 7-5 scores, with Gould and Nesbitt sriking first and the Hornets answering. The final set was tight, too, but the Bees’ pair was able to beat Adavikolanu and Chong 6-4 to claim the title.
Up in Division I singles, eighth-grader Mira Nadzan made her way to the final round, only to take a 6-1, 6-0 defeat to Christian Brothers Academy’s Giselle Vlassis.
This led to the sectional state qualifier, which began last Tuesday at Drumlins and where Nadzan would get all the way to the semifinals as the no. 2 seed.
Having routed Camden’s Morgan Keil 6-0, 6-1 in the opening round, Nadzan would, in the quarterfinals, get a 6-0, 6-0 shutout over Manlius Pebble Hill’s Emily Zaitsev.
Now all that was needed was a semifinal win over Zaitsev’s MPH teammate, Amitees Fazelli, to qualify for the state tournament,
It was the same for Gould and Nesbitt in doubles. From their no. 2 seed, the B’vile pair blanked Hailee Ferguson and Abigail Eiser (Beaver River) 6-0, 6-0 and then handled Whitesboro’s Karina Andronovich and Julia Dzeravenets 6-4, 6-0 in the quarterfinals.
The semifinal against Auburn’s Claire Diffin and Abby Carr would go in favor of Gould and Nesbitt, assuring a berth in the state tournament even though they lost the final 6-0, 6-0 to Jamesville-DeWitt’s duo of Mona Farah and Tara Pollock.
Nadzan, meanwhile, lost her semifinal to Fazeli, but by defeating Liverpool’s Angelica Underwood in the consolation match, she clinched her first-ever state tournament appearance. Competition there begins Thursday at Sportime in Schenectady.
B’ville also had its state Division I (large school) team tournament appearance to attend to, which it did on Saturday as it faced Section II champion Bethlehem in the regional finals.
It was the Eagles prevailing 6-1 and advancing to the state final four, which takes place Nov. 4 at the USTA-Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City, annual home of the U.S. Open.
