CENTRAL NEW YORK – Already with one great match between them, the Jamesville-DeWitt and East Syracuse Minoa faced one another again Wednesday’ afternoon.
This time around, it was the Spartans who emerged victorious, 4-3, the same margin by which it lost to the Red Rams when they first met Aug. 31.
Here, five of the seven matches would go to three sets, including all the doubles contests, so the key was that ESM would win two of the three matches in singles.
With a timely comeback, the Spartans’ Erin Murnane rallied past Olivia Clark 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, complementing Rhiannon Cobb’s 6-3, 6-2 sweep of Ella Arzia as the Rams’ Mona Farah blanked Brooke Kirkpatrick 6-0, 6-0.
Remarkably, each doubles match saw the winning side lose in the first set. J-D had Yara Farah and Olivia Quackenbush fight past Sophie Jones and Caroline Sitnik 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 as Kayva Arasu and Gaby Garcia Thomas won 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 over Abigail Cain and Oso Ihkide.
But ESM won it by having Gianna Brilbeck and Katelyn Davis fight back to beat Anna Hasegawa and Jaeda Robinson 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 and, two games from defeat, Jewelianna Hallock and Lila O’Brien won 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 over Kendall Cabiles and Laila Khalil.
Before this, J-D challenged SCAC Empire division-leading Auburn on Monday and almost caught the Maroons before taking a 4-3 defeat.
With the Maroons sweeping singles matches, the Red Rams needed every single point in doubles, and saw Mona and Yana Farah pair up to win in straight sets.
In three-set battles, Garcia Thomas and Arasu went from a first-set loss to dominating Sadie Morin and Olivia Schwab 4-6, 6-0, 6-0.
Quackenbush and Hasegawa rallied, too, beating Samantha Carr and Alexis Caruso 3-0, 6-0, 6-4, while in fourth doubles Cablies and Khalil got to a third set, only to lose to Emma Sroka and Madison Fredericksen 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
A pair of matches with Fulton last Tuesday both went in J-D’s favor. The 5-2 opener had a singles sweep as Mona Farah beat Lauren Bradshaw 10-1, Azria topped Lana Champion 10-7 and Clark edged Julianna Delano 10-8.
The other match ended 4-1, the Rams completing the sweep with doubles wins from Quackenbush-Yara Farah, Robinson-Garcia Thomas and Hasegawa-Olivia Conley as Mona Farah blanked Delano 10-0.
ESM prevailed last Monday over Fulton 6-1 to move to 6-3 on the season, with a singles sweep from Kirkpatrick, Murnane and Sitnik as the doubles teams of Cain-Cobb, Ikhide-Hallock and O’Brien-Amra Komran each won in two sets.
Then, after beating J-D, the Spartans had its own challenge to first-place Auburn on Thursday but lost, 5-2, to the Maroons.
Kirkpatrick made sure ESM avoided a singles sweep, beating Alexandra Vitale 7-5, 6-4. Cain and Ikhide won in doubles in three sets over Victoria Brown and Emma Sroka 6-1, 6-7 (7-1), 6-0 as Hallock and O’Brien took a 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 defeat to Morin and Schwab.
J-D played again Friday and again found itself in a close match against Oswego, but got past the Buccaneers 4-3 because it won three doubles matches in straight sets.
Aside from Mona Farah’s 6-0, 6-0 win over Anna Michalski, the Rams got easy wins from the duos of Robinson-Anna Hasegawa and Rabiles-Clara Hasegawa, but Arasu and Garcia Thomas went a bit longer to get a 7-5, 6-2 decision over Alannie White and Clementine Rastley.
