CENTRAL NEW YORK – When the focus in Section III girls tennis shifted from a team to individual basis, the temperatures fell, but the success remained.
And none of the local teams topped what Manlius Pebble Hill did in Division IV as Amitees Fazeli rolled to the singles title and the doubles championship went to Rose Fallon and Sabrina Loop.
Fazeli did not drop a game in either of her first two matches, including a 6-0, 6-0 semifinal romp over her MPH teammate, Ferial Migeed. Meanwhile, Bishop Grimes’ Sofia Ziankoski beat Kiersten Tynatishon (Westmoreland) 6-4, 6-4 in the quarterfinals and, in the semifinals against MPH’s Carline Mezzalingua, recorded a 6-2, 6-2 victory.
In that title match Thursday at Oneida High School, Fizeli did drop a game to Ziankoski, but still rolled 6-1, 6-0, establishing herself as a favorite for the sectional state qualifier at Drumlins.
Fallon and Loop rose from a no. 14 seed to win four matches on the way to their sectional title, dropping just two games in the first two rounds before a semifinal where they upended Westmoreland’s Lily Mazur and Jenna Tyczynski.
To win the final, Fallon and Loop would have to beat Utica Notre Dame’s Alyssa Capuana and Isabella Zalocha – and they did, taking just two sets to prevail 6-2, 6-0.
The Division II sectional tournament had Jamesville-DeWitt standout Mona Farah as the top seed in singles, and she proved that point with a dominant run to the title.
Farah blanked Anna Nigro (New Hartford) 6-0, 6-0 and, by those exact same scores, defeated Madison Castle (Oneida) to set up a championship-match showdown with another undefeated player,Whitesboro’s Emma Kane.
This final would mirror Fazeli’s run in the the Division IV tournament in that Farah dropped just a single game, handling Kane 6-0, 6-1 as she also should have a top seed in the state qualifier.
In doubles, J-D had the team of Anna Hasegawa and Jaeda Robinson reach the quarterfinals before a 6-2, 6-3 defeat to Homer’s Emma Effinger and Lauren Franco, one round ahead of the exit of Lauren Quackenbush and Yana Farah.
Up in Division I, Fayetteville-Manlius, competing on its home court in the early rounds, had its doubles team of Trisha Adavikolanu and Lindsey Chong made it through the opening rounds and, in the semifinals, roll past West Genesee’s Angelina Allen and Calina Olson 6-2, 6-1.
Challenging the top seed, Baldwinsville’s Sonia Nadzan and Elaina Nesbitt, Adavikolanu and Chong lost the first set 6-1 and, though they were closer in the second set, fell 6-4.
Earlier in the tournament, Nadzan and Nesbitt had stopped the run of F-M’s Shreya Bhattachrya and Selena Chen in the semifinal round, rallying for a 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 win.
Up in singles, F-M’s Sadie Toole advanced to the semifinals with a pair of straight-set wins over Cara Vasile (Auburn) and Samantha Booth (Central Square) before B’ville’s Mira Nadzan, the top seed, beat her 6-3, 6-3. Erin McLain got to the quarterfinals, only to take a 6-0, 6-0 loss to Liverpool’s Angelica Underwood.
East Syracuse Minoa had Brooke Kirkpatrick and Erin Murnane both fall in the round of 16 of singles competition, the same round where the Spartans’ doubles teams of Gianna Brilbeck-Katelyn Davis and Caroline Sitnik-Sophie Jones took defeats.
Christian Brothers Academy also took part in the Division I sectional tournament, with the teams of Meredith Sommers and Audrey Schaefer falling in the quarterfinals to Bhattacharya and Chen as Julie Zdep and Maddie Evans fell in the quarterfinals to Allen and Olson 6-4, 6-0.
