CENTRAL NEW YORK – Once everyone had returned from the April school break, the high school boys tennis season could truly start in full with a large string of matches for all five teams.
Two met each other last Tuesday afternoon and Christian Brothers Academy got the best of it, defeating Manlius Pebble Hill by a score of 4-1.
In singles play CBA had Andrew Arcuri beat Jon Howard 6-0, 6-0, with Hunter Szatkowski topping Savir Gambhir 6-0, 6-1. But in first singles the Trojans’ Jasmin Zaman rallied to top Chanu Yang 6-7 (7-2), 6-3, 10-3.
Soren Kang and Joe Riccelli won in doubles 7-5, 7-5 over Andy and Sam Lurvey. Caleb Buddie and Dev Bhatt earned the other point, topping Devan Trikha and Owen Hay 6-3, 6-3.
MPH recovered from this shutting out Mexico 5-0 on Wednesday afternoon. One singles match was forfeited, but Zaman blanked Owen Gilbert 6-0, 6-0 and Gambhir prevailed, too, 6-2, 6-1 over Ethan Gilbert.
A 4-1 win over Chittenango followed on Thursday, MPH seeing Gambhir outlast Noah Edwards 6-3, 0-6, 6-4 in singles as Zaman topped Seth Boulter 6-0 6-3, with the Lurveys coming from behind for a 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 win over Vince DiNatale and Seamus Gardner.
This happened as CBA defeated Cortland 5-1. Shutouts in singles by Szatkowski over Kyle Taylor and Arcuri over Jeremie Hale were augmented by a doubles sweep where not a single game was dropped.
Fayetteville-Manlius played last Wednesday against Central Square and recorded a 5-2 victory over the Redhawks.
Three of the four doubles matches were shutouts, only John and William Miller pushed as they beat Paul Newton and Anthony Clark 6-2, 6-2. Cooper Blum lost in singles 6-4, 6-4 to Devin Seymour, but Dan Manta won handling Thai Ryfun 6-0, 6-1.
F-M then blanked West Genesee 7-0 on Thursday, Blum earning the seventh point when he outlasted Paul Toumbacaris 6-7 (7-2), 6-2, 6-1, and all of the other Hornets not dropping more than two games in any single set.
All of this followed a 7-0 shutout of Auburn on April 17 where Akshay Kolvapally had a battle in singles but got past Owen Mahunik 6-4, 6-4, while in doubles Rishi Kaul and Josh Zai had a 6-2, 7-6 win over Chase Abdelaziz and John White.
Jamesville-DeWitt had lost each of its first five matches of the season before breaking that skid last Monday afternoon when it defeated Central Square 5-2.
The Red Rams had to win all four doubles matches with the team of Erin Bae and Taig Bajwa needing three sets to get past Eli Schlueter and Dylan Logan 6-3, 1-6, 6-2.
Straight-set wins went to the teams of Toby Thompson-Lucas Chiorini, Will Fahey-Zach Price and Harman Butalia-Iskender Mambetaliev, with Furqan Hasan beaten in singles 6-1, 5-7, 6-0 by Seymour but Henry Commandeur earning the clinching point 6-2, 6-1 over Sam Fallows.
Then J-D blanked Oswego 7-0 with straight-set singles wins from Commandeur, Chiorini and Kian Sarmast. Combined, the four doubles teams gave up just three games in eight sets.
In Wednesday’s match with Syracuse City, the Rams won again, this time 5-2. Sarmast survived a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 match with Coen Fierke to keep Syracuse from sweeping the singles, but J-D took every doubles match in two sets, led by Commandeur and Bajwa getting past Adrian Cuellar and Agoth Athian 6-2, 6-4.
East Syracuse Minoa also won its first match last Monday in a 4-1 decision over Oswego sparked by 6-0, 6-0 shutouts in singles by Brett Hockey over Leonard Lin and Mike Spilka over Tyler Avalos.
Over in doubles the Spartans had Jude Rudnick and Braeden Clappin topping Cooper Therrien and Michael Kaye 6-3, 6-2, with Chris Hurd and Connor Young defeating Kevin Canalas Reyes and Eathen Bean 6-1, 6-2.
A close 4-3 loss to West Genesee followed on Wednesday, with Rudnick and Clappin rallying in doubles past Ethan Gage and Sawyer Ruston 1-6, 6-0, 6-4 plus singles wins from Hockey over Aidan McCormick 6-4, 7-5 and Spilka 6-1, 6-2 over Jacob Dalton.
