CENTRAL NEW YORK – When members of the Baldwinsville girls tennis team returned to Fayetteville-Manlius Monday to start the Section III Division I singles and doubles tournaments, they did not lack for motivation.
It was on these same courts less than a week earlier that the Bees, as a collective unit, came within a set of repeating its sectional Class A team title again at F-M’s expense, only to get denied by the Hornets.
Now they would battle again, only now it was the Bees who would get the best of F-M in two ways.
Mira Nadzan and Ayla Kalfass advancing to a singles championship match against one another as, in doubles, the team of Sonia Nadzan and Elaina Nesbitt backed up their top seed by also claiming a sectional championship and advancing to the sectional state qualifier at Drumlins.
For her part, Mira Nadzan handled Rowan Doyle (Christian Brothers Academy) 6-1, 6-1 and then toppled Olivia Magnarelli (Liverpool) 6-1, 6-0 to reach a semifinal with F-M’s Sadie Toole, winning that match 6-3, 6-3.
As that went on, Kalfass, the no. 3 seed, roared past CBA’s Claire Schaefer and then, in a tense quarterfinal, came from behind to beat Auburn’s Alexandra Vitale 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.
Given a day to rest as the matches were called due to darkness, Kalfass returned to F-M last Tuesday and beat the no. 2 seed, Liverpool’s Angelica Underwood, 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals to make it an all B’ville singles title match as Ella Clary lost in the opening round to the Hornets’ Erin McLain.
With the scene shifted to Oneida High School for Thursday’s finals, Kalfass pushed Mira Nadzan in the first set, but the top seed still prevailed 7-5 and then, adding a 6-3 victory in the second set, claimed sectional honors.
Then there was doubles, where Nesbitt and Sonia Nadzan got going with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) win over Caroline Sitnik and Sophie Jones (East Syracuse Minoa) before a quarterfinal where they swept F-M’s Angelina Fang and Caitlyn McLain 6-3, 6-1.
The semifinal brought true payback. Selena Chen, who rallied past Clary for the decisive singles point in the sectional team final, was paired with Shreya Bhattacharya, but this time it was the Bees who got the comeback win, Nesbitt and Nadzan rallying to prevail 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.
And what awaited in the final was another F-M duo, this time Trisha Adavikolanu and Lindsay Chong. At Oneida on Thursday, a dominant first set brought a 6-1 win and, following it up, Nesbitt and Nadzan won the second set 6-4, allowing Nesbitt to repeat in sectional doubles to go with the 2022 she won with Hannah Gould.
