ONONDAGA COUNTY – Though it is just the middle of May, it is already time for the Section III boys tennis team tournament, where Cicero-North Syracuse would have a part.
Given the no. 7 seed in Class A, the Northstars would face no. 10 seed Auburn in last Saturday’s opening round, with the winner off to a quarterfinal against no. 2 seed Baldwinsville – whom C-NS lost to in a 7-0 decision early last week.
And the Northstars would earn that rematch with B’ville, prevailing 6-1 over the Maroons with its greatest strength shown on the doubles side.
Austin Fosberg and Joe Johnston set the tone with a 6-0, 6-0 shutout of Andrew Frazer and Chase Abdelaziz, while Dylan Fouriner and Tom Christou worked past Owen and Noah Mahunik 6-3, 6-0.
With Gavin Nguyen and Evan Scott sweeping Joe Janas and Robert O’Hara 6-4, 6-0, it was up to Ryan Keil and Ryan Fehrman to make it 4-0 in doubles, which they did by overcoming an early deficit and, two games from defeat, find a way past Brody and Colby Wagner 6-7 (7-5), 7-5, 6-3.
Up in singles, Mike DeGroat lost to Riley Fitzgerald 6-2, 6-3, but Parker Cook made up for it, handling Bill Li 6-3, 6-1, and Drew Errante reversed those numbers in a 6-1, 6-3 win over Patrick Hogan.
Against B’ville last week, the closest match for C-NS came in doubles, where Johnston and Dylan Fournier pushed Kai Wilson and Nick Fogu, but lost 6-4, 7-6.
The teams of Fehrman-Keil, Fosberg-Cook and Connor Donovan-Tom Canfield all lost in two sets, while in singles DeGroat fell to Mason Doan 6-4, 6-2. Errante and Zarin Liangsiri also lost in singles play.
As for Liverpool, it will have Justin Barrett a favorite in singles when the individual sectional tournament gets underway, but even with him, the Warriors could not get on the board in last Monday’s match against unbeaten Fayetteville-Manlius, taking a 7-0 defeat to the Hornets.
Matt McKeon played two close sets in singles but fell 6-4, 6-4 to John Gilligan, with Kasey Maher competitive, too, though he lost to Jonathan So 6-3, 6-1.
The doubles teams of John Ioannidis-Raury Bienkowski and Joe Ciotti-Greyson Valente won four games apiece, while the teams of Aydan Pressley-Dan Haynes and Chase Loveless-Gideon Aitken each were shut out.
