CHENANGO FORKS – The Norwich varsity tennis squad traveled to Chenango Forks high school to complete their regular season matches, defeating The Blue Devils at 5-2 on May 9.
Norwich elected to change its lineup in in the match in an attempt to get ready for sectional play.
“We wanted to win the match, we didn’t want to put that in jeopardy but we went with a sectional lineup tonight,” said Norwich head coach John Stewart. “Moved Carlos up to first singles, that was a good win for Carlos because Jamison had lost to that kid the first time we played. Second part of the story is our first doubles who turned out to be Cameron Edwards and Jamison Luke tonight. This was our chance to get a match under our belt for those two playing together and getting used to each other again.”
Stewart explained the Edwards and Luke had played doubles together in the past, and now entering into sectional play, moving from their respective singles spots on the season will be seeded fourth in the Class B Sectional Tournament.
“They’re formidable, they’re gonna be a good doubles team moving forward,” said Stewart.
As Stewart explained, Ithier defeated Aidan Houlihan in straight sets at 7-6(7-3), 6-4. Joel Fazio, would move up to second singles for Norwich would face off against Niklas Boeker, losing 6-4 and 7-5.
Senior Dan Zieno was moved into singles play at the third doubles slot, suffering a close loss to Josh Wheelock in a three set match of 7-5, 3-6, and 10-5.
“He turned out to be a pretty solid tennis player, I think he has enjoyed himself,” said Stewart of Zieno's season and play.
Josia Shaver of Norwich would debut in his first ever singles matchup, and blanking his opponent, James Wachter, for the win at 6-0, 6-0.
Singles play would split with two match awarded for Norwich and Chenango Forks. Doubles play would ultimately be slanted toward The Tornado with all three matches ending in favor of Norwich.
The fourth seeded duo of Edwards and Luke, easily handled their first competition of the season at first doubles for the Tornado, winning 6-0, 6-2
over Konnor Brown and Declan Houlihan of Chenango Forks.
Austin Benenati and Zayn Harper at second doubles saw action against Micheal Sehn and Brejaun Samson defeating the Blue Devil pair in two sets at 6-1, and 6-2.
The duo of Mike Carson and Matt Giglio completed the sweep in the doubles play for Norwich when they earned the win by forfeit on the night.
With the win over Chenango Forks, Norwich now prepares for post-season play where they will travel to Oneonta for the two-day Class B Sectional Tournament on May 12.
Stewart explained that each team in the tournament has two singles and two doubles teams, with eight teams in the Class Championship. Therefore, there can only be four seeds due to the amount of entrants.
With Edwards and Luke earning the only seeding for the tournament, Stewart attested that his second doubles team of Austin Benenati and Zayn Harper, as well as his first singles Carlos Ithier, all received favorable draw-ins to the tournament. However, at second singles, Joel Fazio did not receive as favorable of a draw, as he will face off first against the second seed, Jared Mirch, of Windsor.
The start time for the tournament is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Thursday May 12, with an additional day of competition to follow the next day.
With the completeion of the 2016 regular season, it should be noted that the duo of Matt Giglio and Josia Shaver finished the season undefeated at 11-0 in doubles play. Joel Fazio also completed the season going undefeated at the fourth singles spot winning 10 matches, only suffering two losses when being bumped up to second singles.