CENTRAL NEW YORK – Warm, dry weather greeted the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool boys tennis teams, providing a rare instance of a regular season that started on time with a full slate.
And that included going head-to-head Thursday afternoon. Under bright and warm sunshine, the Northstars were able to sweep all four doubles matches on the way to topping the Warriors 5-2.
Even though Peter Gill and Andrew George trailed early in second doubles, they were able to rally, beating James Welch and Andrew Caimano 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Otherwise, it was all done in straight sets. Matt Jordan and Ryan Kiel handled Aiden Hunter and Ayden Presley 6-2, 6-0, with Timothy Mai and Joe DeGroat beating Andrew Wadle and Melvin Tran 6-4, 6-2. Mike DeGroat and Alex Cao shut out Greyson Valente and Raury Bienkowski 6-0, 6-0.
Liverpool got both of its points in singles, where Justin Barrett was impressive beating Wyatt Dupell 6-2, 6-1 and Kasey Maher, in three sets, topped Brandon Nguyen 6-1, 0-6, 6-1. Brady Petranchuk got another point for the Northstars when he beat Mason Pinchin 6-0, 6-0.
For Liverpool’s season opener last Monday afternoon, it took on Baldwinsville, who proved dominant on the doubles side and defeated the Warriors 6-1.
Only Barrett gained a point for Liverpool, able to beat Mason Doan in straight sets 6-1, 6-2, while Pinchin lost 6-0, 6-0 to Nathan Smith and Maher fell to Eric Ventura by those same scores.
Welch and CVaimano had, by far, the closest of the four doubles matches, able to gain some games in a 6-2, 6-4 defeat to Connor Tutor and Leo Vann, while the teams of Presley-Hunter, Bienkowski-Valente and John Ioannidis-Dan Haynes and earned just two total games in six sets during doubles defeats.
Liverpool then went to Auburn a day later and, while grabbing a pair of points, still lost 5-2 to the Maroons.
C-NS opened its season a day later, against Fulton, and rolled to a 7-0 shutout, though only one of the doubles matches was contested as Jordan and Kiel handled Fenix Robinson and Ayden Cusic 6-0, 6-0.
Up in singles for the Northstars, Dupell beat Frank Salerno 6-1, 6-0, with Petranchuk getting a 6-2, 6-1 win over Alan Craig and Nguyen blanking Jordan Thurlow 6-0, 6-0.
Then C-NS handled Oswego 7-0 on Wednesday afternoon, with 6-0, 6-0 shutouts by Petranchuk over Donovan Costanza and Nguyen over Brandon Sorbino as Dupell beat Duncan Baker 6-0, 6-4.
To preserve the shutout, Jordan and Kiel had to go three sets for a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over Ben Braun and Lucas Maniccia, with Gill-George and Main-DeGroat dropping just one game in four total sets.
