CENTRAL NEW YORK – All season long, the Cazenovia girls tennis team has proven strong enough to overcome the small size of its roster.
Now the Lakers head into the Section III Class C team tournament as the no. 2 seed, determined to conquer the field after putting together a 12-1 regular-season mark. It meets no. 7 seed Copenhagen in the quarterfinals, the winner to face Westmoreland or Manlius Pebble Hill in the semifinals a day later.
In last Tuesday’s showdown against Westhill, Cazenovia again had to hand over a point due to a doubles forfeit, and still beat the Warriors 4-3.
Westhill had started 6-0 before taking a 5-2 defeat to Christian Brothers Academy on Sept. 20, and would run into a Cazenovia side that swept all three singles matches.
Rachel Molloy and Madden Cobb both earned 6-0, 6-0 shutouts – Molloy over Cadence Ramsing, Cobb over Katie Rogers. And though Leah Bell got more of a challenge from Clare Delay, Bell still won 6-4, 6-3.
Forfeiting one point in doubles, the Lakers were kept from the clinching point when Ava Galton and Katie Williams took a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 defeat to Phoebe Gumaer and Samantha Burkett, but earned it when Nora Berg and Grace Probe outlasted Julia Flegel and Isabella Johnson 6-3, 6-7 (7-5), 10-7.
Then the Lakers met up with its neighbors from Chittenango on Thursday afternoon and claimed all of the contested single-set matches to 10 games in a 6-1 victory over the Bears.
Molloy and Bell both earned 10-1 decisions over, respectively, Allie Bartoszek and Evelynn Keville, with Cobb taking a bit longer to put away Michelle LaTour 10-5.
A good battle in doubles had Berg and Probe hold off Sarah McKillip and Maddy Douglas 10-8, with Galton and Grace Campagna pairing up to beat Molly Douglas and Lia Ezzo 10-2. Williams and Audrey Henry handled Jenna Peretta and Jade Sequin 10-3.
Two days earlier, Chittenango met that same CBA squad Westhill lost to and was kept off the board in a 7-0 loss to the undefeated Brothers.
Two of the doubles matches proved competitive. McKillip and Maddy Douglas had a 10-4 defeat to Audrey Schaefer and Meredith Sommers, with Olivia Skoglund and Anna Chatwin falling to Gianna Moore and Rachel Zdep 10-5.
Then, in Wednesday’s 4-3 defeat to Homer, Molly Douglas got on the board with a 6-1, 6-1 sweep of Georgia Wallis as Maddy Douglas overcame a rough start and a second-set tiebreak to beat Mackenzie Skodzinsky 1-6, 7-6, 6-2.
Keville and LaTour paired up to win 6-2, 6-3 over Isabelle Brown and Nina Severika, but McKillip and Bartoszek could not hold on in a 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 defeat to Emma Effinger and Lauren Franco, while Campbell Reed and Margaret Geer twice had tiebreaks to win the match, yet still fell to Sunny Park and Elizabeth McCloy 4-6, 7-6, 7-6.
When Chittenango took its turn in the opening round of the sectional Class B team tournament as the no. 10 seed, it nearly upended no. 7 seed Jamesville-DeWitt, but fell to the Red Rams 4-3.
All of the Bears’ points came in doubles, where LaTour and Maddy Douglas shut out Anna Hasegawa and Jaeda Robinson 6-0, 6-0 and, by those same scores, Saige Burton and Erica Ezzo routed Laila Khalil and Gaby Garcia Thomas.
In three sets, Bartoszek and Molly Douglas outlasted Olivia Quackenbush and Yara Farah 6-1, 5-7, 6-3, but with a chance at the clinching point, Lia Ezzo, in third singles, could not hold on against Ella Arzia, taking a 4-6, 6-0, 7-5 defeat.
