CENTRAL NEW YORK – As it had done all spring, the Cazenovia boys tennis team had turned back all possible challenges to its place atop the Onondaga High School League Liberty American division.
Yet a perfect regular season hung on the result of Wednesday’s match against Christian Brothers Academy, with the Lakers sitting at 11-0 and the Brothers at 9-0.
Cazenovia would take it, 4-1, and it began in singles, where Traian Cherciu, mixing in big serves with strong baseline play, put away Chanu Yang 6-1, 6-1.
Garrett Lounsbury, again in second singles, had one of his best matches of the season against Soren Kang, who had won eight in a row coming into this match but was quickly topped by Lounsbury 6-2, 6-2.
To get the clinching point, in second doubles Ethan Camp and Cy Lurie had to rally. John Engle and Joe Riccelli took the first set 7-5, but in both the second and third sets Camp and Lurie used service breaks to take control and win them by equal 6-3 margins. In the other doubles match, Evan Molloy and Max Reger lost to Hunter Szatkowski and Andrew Arcuri 6-0, 6-1.
Just as exciting was the third singles match where Gabe Reagan blanked Gabriel Yang 6-0 in the first set, lost the second 6-3 and then went back and forth in the final set before going to a tiebreak where a quick break of serve led to Reagan prevailing 7-2 to maintain his personal undefeated mark in 2024.
Up against its namesakes from Skaneateles two days earlier, Cazenovia leaned heavily on its strong trio of singles players to win this Laker duel by a 4-1 margin.
To get it started, Cherciu won 6-4, 6-0 over Noah Soderbert, while Lounsbury topped James Lovier 6-0, 6-3 and Reagan won 6-2, 6-0 over Kevin Torrisi.
Over in doubles, Camp and Lurie dominated Case Pavlus and Patrick Scott 6-1, 6-0, which made up for Reger and Molloy taking a 6-0, 6-1 loss to Jake and Peter Salzhauer.
Even more impressive was a 5-0 shutout of Westhill a day later, the shutout preserved when Lounsbury, in second singles, went through a close third set and won over Jackson Flegel 6-1, 6-7 (7-4), 7-5.
Otherwise, Cherciu put away Shay Smyth 6-3, 6-0, with Reagan reversing those scores to beat Zane Eldred 6-0, 6-3. Molly and Reger handled Cameron Lopez and Andrew Sadowski 6-2, 6-0 as Cy Lurie and Liam Robertson won 6-0, 6-1 over Zero Stiner and Alex Tyscka.
Chittenango, whose lone defeat entering the week was one to Cazenovia, saw that total double last Monday when the Bears could not get a point in singles against Westhill, leading to a 3-2 defeat.
Both of the doubles matches were lopsided 6-1, 6-1 victories for Chittenango, Seamus Gardner and Vince DiNatale beating Andrew Sadowski and Alex Tyscka as Bernardo Bartovski and Cole Thomas routed Will Stiner and Zero Stiner.
Logan Bronner ran into Shay Smyth and lost, 6-0, 6-0, with Logan Bronner tough in a 6-4, 7-5 defeat to Jackson Flegel. Noah Edwards got to a third set, but lost to Zane Eldred 6-2, 1-6, 6-3.
Then, in a 4-1 defeat to CBA a day later, the Bears broke up a possible shutout when Bortovski and Thomas beat Engle and Riccelli 6-1, 6-3. Seth Boulter, in second singles, led Kang early, but could not hold it in a 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 defeat.
Now the Section III team tournaments loom, with Chittenango the no. 4 seed in Class B, hosting Mexico in Monday’s quarterfinals with the winner to get a semifinal against unbeaten top seed New Hartford.
Cazenovia, again, held the top seed in Class C, and would need to win two rounds of matches early this week starting with Monday’s quarterfinal against Holland Patent to get back to the finals on Wednesday at Utica Parkway Courts.
