Once again, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls tennis team finds itself clearly placed atop the area large-school ranks, looking for anyone to catch them.
Before the season started, though, the Hornets took part in the annual Coaches vs. Cancer Doubles Slam, joining Jamesville-DeWitt, Christian Brothers Academy and Cazenovia in raising more than $5,600 for the American Cancer Society.
Then the matches began on Aug. 30, and F-M pushed past Syracuse East 7-0 in a rare effort even by its own high standards.
Katerina Atallah, Anna Manta and Phoebe Wang each won 6-0, 6-0 matches over, respectively, Asmita Bhattaria, Marian Del Valle and Helen Vincent, but it didn’t stop there.
F-M’s quartet of doubles teams also did not allow any games in eight sets, the duos of Rachel Liu-Keara Polovick, Alexis Ahn-Martha Welker, Maddy Drapeau-Cassie Wojtasiewicz and Maddy Herodes-Michelle Lim pulling it off.
Much tougher matches would come in September, especially with West Genesee, Cicero-North Syracuse and Baldwinsville all set to face the Hornets within a four-day span.
WG went first last Tuesday, already 2-0 on the season, but could only snare a single point from F-M, whose 6-1 victory included 6-0, 6-0 singles wins by Manta and Wang over, respectively, Mi Tran and Chloe Soltys as Atlallah beat Anglelina Llanos 6-0, 6-2.
Moving to doubles, Ahn and Polovick lost, 6-2, 6-3, to Mikayla Mannara and Katie Viau, but Liu and Welker handled Anastasia Mello and Natalie Thurston 6-3, 6-3, while Drapeau and Wojtasiewicz topped Greta Hahn and Emma Yeager 6-1, 6-2. Ava Abruzzese and Samhitha Adavikolanu won 6-1, 6-4 over Alyssa Congel and Emma Pinker.
When F-M blanked Cicero-North Syracuse 7-0 on Thursday afternoon, Atallah, Manta and Wang rolled through singles as, in doubles, the teams of Liu-Polovick, Ahn-Welker, Drapeau-Wojtasiewicz and Abruzzese-Adavikolanu surrendered just two games in eight total sets.
A day later, against Baldwinsville, the Hornets continued to roll, blanking the Bees 7-0 while, again, not dropping a set in any of those matches as Manta beat Hanna Manning, Atallah stopped Paige Tromblee 6-0, 6-0 and Wang won 6-2, 6-0 over Reagan Doan.
Some of the doubles matches took a bit longer, with Ahn and Polovick pushed to a first-set tie-breaker, but beating Hannah Gould and Paige Tromblee 7-6, 6-3.
Abruzzese and Adavikolanu won, 6-2, 6-4, over Katrina Hays-Peterson and McKenna Murphy, while Drapeau and Wojtasiewicz got past Sarah Cavino and Isabelle Thomas 6-2, 6-3. Liu and Welker routed Audrey Benton and Lauren Devine 6-0, 6-1.
Manlius-Pebble Hill prevailed 5-2 over Mexico on Thursday, Genevieve Morrow leading the Trojans’ singles sweep as she beat Kim Heagerty 7-5, 6-2, with Parmees Fazeli blanking Juliana Hernandez 6-0, 6-0 and Halle Erwin handling Juliana Smith 6-3, 6-4.
The doubles matches were split, Sara Antonevich and Ava Benedict rallying to beat Mia Morris and Destiny Teachout 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 as Emma Gross and Grace Zhang won, 6-3, 6-4, over Alivia Kelsey and Emma Teeter.
From there, MPH won again on Friday, holding off Westhill 4-3 in large part because it won two matches in three sets to go with Fazeeli’s 6-2, 6-1 romp over Grace Lesselroth and a 6-1, 6-3 win by Eva Englich and Eden Hildebrandt over Delaney and Mikayla Carroll.
Morrow got the key point, rallying and, in a third-set tie-breaker, edging Cami Cortez 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 as Gross and Caroilne Mezzalingua went three sets to top Sophie Langdon and Kaley Richmond 7-5, 4-6, 10-6.
Bishop Grimes nearly got into the win column on Aug. 31 against Westhill, only to drop a 4-3 decision that centered around a trio of three-set singles matches.
Katie Knittel won, 6-2, 2-6, 6-2, over Grace Lesselroth. Kate Mathewson endured a long battle with Sophia Frost and pulled it out 6-7, 7-5, 7-6, only to have Michela Maturano find herself unable to hold on in a 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 defeat to Cami Cortez.
Picking up a doubles point, Lenora Cedrone and Abby Wilkinson blanked Mikayla Carroll and Sophie Langdon 6-0, 6-0, but Grimes forfeited another doubles match, just as Hannah Maroney and Jenny Morabito fell to Hannah Johnston and Kaley Richmond 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.