CENTRAL NEW YORK – Regardless of which class is talked about, area high school girls tennis teams fully expect themselves to battle for Section III championship honors.
This is especially true at Fayetteville-Manlius, out to claim the Class A crown again as the sectional tournament gets underway on Monday with the Hornets facing no. 8 seed Central Square in the quarterfinals.
Christian Brothers Academy could await in the semifinals if the no. 5 seed Brothers beat no. 4 seed Liverpool, while East Syracuse Minoa has the no. 3 seed hosting no. 6 seed Rome Free Academy.
CBA went to 11-0 on the season defeating Mexico 6-1. In single-set matches to eight games Rowan Doyle topped Morgan Benton 8-2 and Clare Schaefer beat Jessica Hill 8-3. The closest of the four doubles matches had Claire Ashe and Sadie Wichmann beating Gabriella Bickford and Kylee Seymour 8-4.
F-M had shut out most of its regular-season opponents, doing it again last Monday to Cicero-North Syracuse 7-0.
There were four different 6-0, 6-0 wins from Lindsey Chong and Erin McLain in singles and the doubles teams of Sadie Toole-Samreen Mangat and Mariah Sun-Sonia LaHaye. Only in second doubles did the Northstars make any small dent, and even there Caitlyn McLain and Julia Kim turned back Kaelin Prentice and Jessica Barnes 6-2, 6-3.
Then it was F-M handling Nottingham 7-0 with shutouts in every doubles match by the teams of Toole-Samira Dalal, Sarah Olson-Erin McLain, Anokhi Dalal-Caitlyn McLain and Lathika Kapu-Eleanor Comprix, with singles wins going to Mangat, LaHaye and Shreya Bhattacharya.
ESM faced Nottingham last Monday and needed a doubles sweep to offset the Bulldogs taking all three of the singles matches and pull out a 4-3 decision.
The teams of Sophie Jones-Katelyn Davis and Lila O’Brien-Caroline Sitnik did not drop a game in their matches. Jewelianna Hallock and Ososeno Ikhide beat Ngan Ngueh and Maria Triana 6-1, 6-0, with Amra Komran and Sophia Stagnitta getting a 6-2, 6-2 win over Alisha Forbes and Railynn Oliver.
ESM never lost more than two games in any of the 14 sets played in a 7-0 romp over Henninger, with a singles sweep including Caroline Sitnik’s 6-0, 6-0 shutout of Mu Gay as Kelly Li beat Monica Youkouma 6-1, 6-0 and Jones topped Nylah Frempong 6-0, 6-1.
