QUEENS – Both at a team and indvidual level area high school girls tennis players got to finish their seasons up against the best during the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships.
In the case of Fayetteville-Manlius it first would go after glory in the team Division I tournament, only to run into Section II’s Bethlehem in the regional round and take a 7-0 defeat to the Eagles.
Once that was done, two different F-M doubles teams would head to the USTA-Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens for the individual NYSPHSAA tournament which got underway Monday morning.
Smareen Mangat and Sadie Toole, who won the Section III state qualifying tournament, would also prevail here in the opening round in a 6-4, 7-5 decision over Pittsford Sutherland’s Jasmine Wu and Caroline Fitzsimmons.
Then, in the round of 16 Mangat and Toole were stopped, 6-2, 6-0, by Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake’s team of Sam Ostrander and Lydia Koivula, who went on to lose in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, the team of Shreya Bhattacharya and Lindsay Chong rolled in their opening-round match against Beekmantown’s Julia and Lucy Conroy 6-1, 6-1 before meeting the same fate of Mangat and Toole in the next round, a 6-1, 6-1 loss to Bayport Blue Point’s Emilia and Evie Romano, who also lost in the semfinals.
Then there was Jamesville-DeWitt singles player Mona Farah, who would start out with an impressive 6-0, 6-0 shutout in the opening round over Binghamton Seton Catholic’s Natalie Crowley.
Meeting Herricks’ Angel Walia in the round of 16, Farah took a 6-2, 6-3 defeat against a Long Island star who would eventually claim the state championship 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) over Niskayuna’s Olivia Dartawan on Wednesday morning. Dartawan had already defeated Baldwinsville’s Mira Nadzan in the same round where Farah was beaten.
