CENTRAL NEW YORK – Though denied by Fayetteville-Manlius in the May 17 Section III Class A championship match, the Baldiwnsville boys tennis team still had a chance at post-season honors.
The Bees took its top singles and doubles players into the sectional Division I tournament, where the doubles teams of Nick Helbig-Andrew Jung and Zach Pendergast-Ethon Haahr would both advance to the state qualifier later in the week.
In doubles, Pendergast and Haahr, the no. 4 seeds, blanked Sam Fallows and Austin Logan (Central Square) 6-0, 6-0 in their opener and, to clinch the state qualifier berth, swept F-M’s Sawyer Brown and Jared Duggal 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals before a 6-0, 6-1 defeat to the Hornets’ Justin Dunn and Dan Manta in the semifinals.
Nick Helbig and Andrew Jung held the no. 2 seed. After beating Sundip Subba and Adrian Cuellar (Syracuse East) 6-2, 6-0, the Bees’ pair won again in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-1 over Donovan Randall and Brett Hockey (East Syracuse Minoa).
Then Helbig and Jung led in their semifinal against F-M’s Xavier Sul and John Gilligan, only to get beat in a second-set tiebreak and go on to take a 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-0 defeat. Elsewhere, Kai Wilson and Nick Fogu lost in the opening round to Liverpool’s Andrew Wade and Kasey Maher 10-6.
In singles, Mason Doan, the no. 3 seed, easily beat Joey Ciotti (Liverpool) 6-2, 6-2 in the round of 16, while in that same round Eric Ventura shut out Utica Proctor’s Don Quay Pham 6-0, 6-0 and, by those same scores, Nathan Smith blanked Syracuse East’s James Saufley.
Then, in the quarterfinals, Doan led Christian Brothers Academy’s Chanu Yang after winning the first set 6-4, only to see Yang take the second set by that same score and then win a 6-0 third set to reach the state qualifier at Doan’s expense.
Quicker matches put an end the hopes of Smith, who lost 6-0, 6-0 to the top seed, Liverpool’s Justin Barrett, and Ventura, who battled hard against F-M’s Cameron Lukasik but took a 6-1, 6-4 defeat. Barrett went on to beat Lukasik in the finals.
