CENTRAL NEW YORK- As a whole, the Baldwinsville girls tennis team was not quite able to dethrone Fayetteville-Manlius with the Section III Class A team title on the line – but it more than made up for that disappointment.
The Bees managed to dominate this week’s sectional Division I singles and doubles tournaments, with Sonia Nadzan and Lainey Nesbitt finishing on top in doubles and Mira Nadzan beating Alya Kalfass for the singles crown.
From their top seed in doubles, Nesbitt and Sonia Nadzan did not drop a set in any of their first three matches, taking out teams from Central Square (Michelle Brisette-Maya Gibson) and West Genesee (Sophia Lawrence-Keira Vrabel) in the early rounds.
Two pairs from F-M stood in the way of the title. Nesbitt and Nadzan cleared the first of them in a 6-2, 6-1 semifinal romp over Caitlyn McLain and Julia Kim, but the final proved tougher.
Shreya Bhattacharya and Lindsey Chong pushed Nesbitt and Nadzan to a first set tiebreak, but when the B’ville pair won it 7-1, it carried over that momentum into the second set and, by a 7-6, 6-3 margin, claimed the sectional title.
Holding the top seed in singles, Mira Nadzan did not drop a single game in six sets of early-round play, blanking Milana D’Amico (Liverpool) and Sarah Domin (West Genesee) before doing the same with Watertown’s Samantha Booth in the semifinals.
Meanwhile, Kalfass, from her no. 2 seed, got her own 6-0, 6-0 shutout over F-M’s Sonia LaHaye in the quarterfinals, with 6-1, 6-0 wins over Emma Kohberger (Liverpool) in the round of 16 and another Hornets player, Erin McLain, in the semifinals.
At first, Kalfass was overwhelmed in the championship match, dropping the first set 6-0, but then made Nadzan work much harder in the second set in a 6-4 decision that secured Nadzan’s championship.
Elsewhere in singles, Jasmine Rawda went 1-1, topping Oswego’s Sophia Cahill 10-6 but, in the next round, running into Erin McLain and taking a 6-2, 6-2 loss.
Moving back to doubles, Ella Clary and Carmela Budzich beat Elena Stojceski and Vienna D’Amico (Liverpool) 10-5 before a 6-3, 7-5 loss to Central Square’s Paige Westfall and Chloe Giblin. A tough first-round match had Laine and Livia Zoanetti fall to West Genesee’s Evelina Mauro and Ava Amodio in a 7-5 tiebreak after they played to a 9-9 tie.
