ONONDAGA COUNTY – Another local girls tennis rivalry went to the forefront last Monday afternoon when Jamesville-DeWitt faced East Syracuse Minoa, and despite some inroads from the Spartans it was still the Red Rams prevailing 5-2 over the Spartans.
All three singles matches went in J-D’s favor, from Mona Farah’s 6-0, 6-0 shutout of Kelly Li to closer matches where Olivia Quackenbush turned back Erin Murnane 6-3, 7-6 and Olivia Clark got past Rhiannon Cobb 7-5, 6-1.
ESM did twice get on the board in doubles. Ososeno Ihkide and Jewelianna Hallock beat Anna Hasegawa and Ella Azria 6-4, 6-3 while, in a similar match, Edith James and Evangeline Tsan won 6-3, 6-4 over Kendall Cabiles and Kavya Arasu.
Where it got decided was in a pair of three-set doubles matches, in each case seeing J-D fall behind but then make up the ground.
After dropping a first-set tiebreak and under threat in the second set, Yara Farah and Kayva Arasu rallied to win 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 over Sophie Jones and Katelyn Davis.
Two games from defeat, Wenyan Ma and Jaeda Robinson found their best form just in time, ultimately subduing Caroline Sitnik and Lila O’Brien 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Having moved to 5-1 overall, J-D played three more times during the week, starting with a 7-0 romp over Henninger where Quackenbush, Clark and Mona Farah dropped a single game in their combined singles matches and, preserving the shutout, Ma and Robinson worked past Monica Youkouma and Salome Dochri 6-3. 7-6 (7-3).
As for ESM, it had two more matches later in the week, starting with Liverpool a day later where the Spartans did just enough to pull out a 4-3 victory with two points apiece in singles and doubles.
Murnane and Cobb both won 6-0, 6-0 matches – Murnane over Madelyn Turck, Cobb over Berlyn Shore. Sophie Jones and Katelyn Davis beat Allie Kerneklian and Emma Kohberger 6-0, 7-5, with the winning points gained
in three sets when Edith James and Evangeline Tsan got past Zoe Dart and Selah Poulsen 6-0, 6-7 (8-6), 6-1.
Far less enjoyable was Friday’s 7-0 loss to Baldwinsville, with Murnane, Cobb and Hallock all shut out in singles matches and the only close call coming in doubles where Sitnik and Davis had a good first set, yet still lost 7-5, 6-3 to Laine and Livia Zoanetti.
In its own 6-1 win over Liverpool on Thursday afternoon, J-D had to struggle for that margin, especially in doubles where two different comebacks were required.
Ma and Robinson came back to beat Vienna D’Amico and Sydney Azzolino 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, while a third-set tiebreak took place to help Arzia and Hasegawa get past Dart and Judah Covell 3-6, 6-0 , 7-6 (7-5). Quackenbush’s 6-4, 6-4 singles win over Milana D’Amico was augmented by three other straight-set wins.
