CENTRAL NEW YORK – In conditions far cooler than when teams titles were on the line a week earlier, area high school girls tennis singles and doubles players took part in two different Section III tournaments, one of them right at home.
Skaneateles played host to the early rounds of the Division III sectional singles and doubles tournaments at Austin Park, and in singles play the Lakers would manage to have both finalists, with Isabelle Soderberg ultimately outlasting Eva DeJesus.
Soderberg was the top seed. She beat Leah Bell (Cazenovia) 6-3, 6-2 and Bailey Faldzinski (Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) 6-2, 6-2 to cruise her way to the semifinals.
On the other end of the bracket, DeJesus was the no. 2 seed. Sweeping Madden Cobb (Cazenovia) 6-0, 7-5 and Lainie Liberatore (Camden) 6-4, 6-1 in the early rounds brought a semifinal against Cobb’s teammate, Rachel Molloy.
Both Lakers stars kept it going. As DeJesus routed Molloy 6-2, 6-0, Soderberg took a bit longer against South Jefferson’s Mia Mouaikel, but won it 6-2, 6-4.
They had to wait until Thursday, and travel to Oneida High School, for Thursday’s championship match, and Soderberg, once she got past a first-set tie-break 7-5, earned the break in the second set and, by a 6-3 margin, defeated DeJesus, though both are advancing to the sectional state qualifier at Drumlins.
Westhill had its doubles team of Isabella Johnson and Kathleen Rogers not drop a set on the way to joining Soderberg as sectional champions.
This included a quarterfinal against their own teammates, Samantha Burkett and Phoebe Gumaer, which Johnson and Rogers won 6-1, 7-5 before a 6-3, 6-4 semifinal win over South Jefferson’s Lauren Edgar and Annalise Hobbs.
Waiting in the championship round at Oneida was Cazenovia’s pair of Grace Probe and Nora Berg, but they would not keep up with Johnson and Rogers, who took the first set 6-2 and won the second set by that same score to end it.
Over in singles, Westhill’s Julia Flegel beat Skaneateles’ Addison Zieler in the round of 16, rallying from a first-half shutout to win 0-6, 6-4, 6-4, only to fall in three sets to Molloy in a 0-6, 6-0, 6-1 match.
Marcellus had, in the Division III tournament, the doubles teams of Abby Finn and Katie Devereaux reach the quarterfinals before a 6-0, 6-3 loss to Probe and Berg.
Also getting to the quarterfinals, Sofia Tufenkjian and Korinne Kemp went to three sets with Edgar and Hobbs, only to take a 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 defeat. Molly Moses and Ella Lutwin lost in the opening round to Burkett and Gumaer.
West Genesee was in the Division I sectional tournament at Fayetteville-Manlius, where the doubles team of Angelina Allen and Calina Olson advanced to the semifinals and earned a berth in the state qualifier.
From the no. 3 seed, Allen and Olson beat Audrey Carr and Ally Feneck (Auburn) 6-0, 6-1 and then, in the quarterfinals, eliminated CBA’s Julie Zdep and Madison Evans 6-4, 6-0 before a 6-2, 6-1 semifinal defeat to F-M’s Trisha Adavikolanu and Lindsay Chong.
Also for the Wildcats, Hannah Sparks and Emliy Schneiker won in the opening round before a 6-1, 6-2 defeat to Cicero-North Syracuse’s Mackenzie Prentice and Kat McRobbie-Taru. Sarah Domin and Eve Mauro lost in the opening round, as did Helena Allen in singles in a 10-7 decision to East Syracuse Minoa’s Erin Murnane.
