ONONDAGA COUNTY – When the Section III girls tennis playoffs got underway Jamesville-DeWitt and Manlius Pebble Hill both would battle for their respective team titles.
In MPH’s case, it got the no. 9 seed in Class C, meaning a first-round match against no. 8 seed Skaneateles Friday to determine who would challenge top seed Cazenovia in the quarterfinals.
What proved the difference was the fact that the Trojans had to forfeit a point in doubles, with the rest played on even terms and leading to a 4-3 defeat.
Just one of the singles matches went to MPH thanks to Amitees Fazeli, who beat Eva DeJesus 7-5, 6-3 as Jenny He dropped her singles match to Addison Zieler 6-2, 6-0.
Two points came from doubles, where Amy Walsh and Audrey Arnold routed Georgia Kriedler and Makayla Barron 6-1, 6-2 and in two sets Rose Fallon and Mira Zhang handled Madelyn Vance and Livy Lovenguth 7-5, 6-1. The teams of Hailey Castrillon-Nia Lewis and Sarah Ma-Sophia Dowhy both lost in two st s.
Before this MPH lost a tight 4-3 decision to Marcellus last Tuesday afternoon, again the difference the fact that the Trojans had to forfeit one of the singles matches.
Each side won three in the contested matches, with Fazeli in singles blanking Xian Angiotti 6-0, 6-0, while He topped Adeline Kinsey 6-0, 6-1. MPH’s lone doubles point came when Fallon and Fariel Mageed rallied to defeat Zofia Polkowski and Abby Finn 6-7 (10-8), 6-0, 10-8.
Then, in Thursday’s 6-1 loss to Cazenovia, only Fazeli broke up the shutout, getting past Leah Bell 6-3, 6-3, but every other point went to the Lakers in straight-set matches where no MPH player was able to earn more than three games in any single set
J-D has the no. 3 seed in Class B, meaning it would host no. 6 seed New Hartford Monday in the quarterfinals to see who faced Whitesboro or Fulton in the semifinals.
To start its last week of the regular season the Red Rams beat Fulton 7-0. Between them, the Red Rams’ singles trio of Mona Farah, Olivia Quackenbush and Olivia Clark lost just four games in six sets of singles play.
Only in second doubles was there a tight opening set, but Jaeda Robinson and Wenyan Ma worked through it to win 7-5, 6-0 over the Red Dragons’ team of Lana Champion and MacKenna LaBarge.
Another 7-0 romp followed over Syracuse West a day later, with Quackenbush and Mona Farah both getting singles shutouts and Clark handling K’amore Richardson 6-1, 6-0.
One doubles match was forfeited and the teams of Robinson-Ma, Asha Viswanathan-Yara Farah and Ella Azria-Anna Hasegaaw dropped just three total games, J-D going on to beat Nottingham 7-0 on Friday to improve its mark to 10-3.
