Maine Endwell spoils Norwich's march to finals, despite Norwich revenge on Oneonta and Windsor
Frank Speziale Photo
ONEONTA –The Norwich varsity tennis squad packed their bags and headed to Oneonta this past Thursday and Friday for the two-day Section IV Class B Tournament on May 12 and 13.
Ultimately falling short of a championship in both team and individual play, Norwich did perform well in the two day tournament, earning enough team points for a tie for the fourth place spot as a team with division rival Oneonta, each notching 17-points.
The Norwich post-season team consisted of Carlos Ithier at first singles, and Joel Fazio at second singles. While on the doubles side it was Jamison Luke and Cameron Edwards at first doubles with the duo of Austin Benenati and Zayn Harper at second doubles.
With a total of eight teams entering the tournament and each entering two doubles as well as two singles, the bracket was at full capacity causing no one to receive a bye in the first round.
Maine Endwell would pull away from the rest of the pack in terms of team and individual achievements, scoring 50 team points for the win and seeing an individual championship in both singles and doubles play.
Norwich advanced three of their four entrants past the first round, something Norwich head coach John Stewart emphasized as a main contributing reason for earning a fourth place finish as a team.
Singles
Carlos Ithier would enjoy early success at first singles in the tournament when he stepped on the court on the first day to defeat Nate Hacker of Johnson City in straight sets at 6-1 and 6-0.
“Carlos took out a weaker Johnson City kid, we kind of expected that,” said Stewart.
Advancing to the quarterfinals Ithier would face a much stiffer challenge from Oneonta's Chris Catan. Catan would down Ithier in two sets, beating him at 6-1 and 6-1. Catan would go on to lose to Maine Endwell in the semi-finals before bouncing back for a third place finish.
At second singles Joel Fazio was faced with his toughest challenge to date, when he was drawn in to face the number two seed from Windsor Jared Mirch. Despite some battle from Fazio, Mirch would earn the win over Fazio in the first round, winning 6-1 and 6-1. Mirch would go on to lose in the semi-finals and ultimately come up short to Catan for a fourth place finish in the consolation round.
Doubles
Norwich saw its greatest success in the way of the doubles side of the tournament.
At first doubles the high powered team of Cameron Edwards and Jamison Luke would struggle in the first round of the tournament, but ultimately earned the win over the Windsor doubles team of Brian Ellsworth and Michael Sova at 7-5 and 6-4.
“We were down in the first set, then got our game going and turned it around,” said Stewart. “In the end we too out a weaker team.”
After their win in the first round, Edwards and Luke would face off against a Vestal team which was hot off a an upset three set win over Oneonta's Sergi Blabia and Nicole van der Sommen.
“The Vestal team beat Oneonta's number one doubles team, both those kids beat us in regular season play,” said Stewart. “But out of nowhere comes a non-seeded Vestal team that takes Oneonta out. We prepared during the week to play Oneonta, and that Vestal team really played well. The bottom line when we played Vestal is we played really well and they expended a lot of energy beating Oneonta in a three setter.”
Edwards and Luke would go on to defeat the Vestal team of Lucas Fiske and Alex Niermeyer in twos sets at 6-3 and 6-2.
The semi-finals proved to be Norwich's undoing in the first doubles play when they faced off against the eventual winners from Maine Endwell. Griffin Goosman and Alec Greene would defeat Edwards and Luke, after a long three set battle. Norwich would surprisingly claim the first set at 6-1, before dropping the final two sets at 6-1 and 6-0 in favor of ME.
“We won the first set, and was thinking 'oh my god we're gonna go to the finals,' I got really excited, but by the third set it was so hot out. It was around 89 degrees, probably over 100 degrees on the court,” said Stewart. “We played a phenomenal first set,we couldn’t do anything wrong, and ME's number one seed couldn’t do anything right for that first set. Then ME turned their game around and started playing really, really well.”
This ME duo would go on to win the doubles bracket defeating the Vestal team of Max Feinberg and Haashim Shah 6-2 and 6-1.
Norwich impressively, despite not earning the win over ME, would be the only doubles team to take a set from Goosman and Greene in the tournament, when they claimed that first set victory to start the semi-finals.
Making it to the semi-finals insured that Edwards and Luke would get an addition match to attempt to take third individually. The other Maine Endwell team of Franco Inciti and Nicholas Pham would earn the third place win over Norwich at 6-2 and 6-4.
“We lost to the ME team 6-2 6-4, lost two deuce games in the first, we were up in both sets, but it is a different game when you go inside,” said Stewart of having to move the games inside on the second day due to the weather.
Second doubles saw Austin Benenati and Zayn Harper defeat Emily Harter and Kasie Stamp of Oneonta at 6-2 and 6-2.
“We took out Oneonta's number two doubles team like we should have. They were less experienced kids so that was expected,” said Stewart.
However, despite the early win Benanati and Harper would fall victim to the Vestal team of Max Feinberg and Haashim Shah who would ultimately appear in the finals against Maine Endwell. Benanati and Harper would battle to a 6-1 and 6-2 loss.
“We took out Windsor and tied Oneonta, I thought that was pretty good for us because that is two teams that took us out in the regular season. It was a little payback,” said Stewart.
With the conclusion of this tournament, Norwich varsity tennis will conclude its 2016 spring season with a 9-3 regular season record.
Tournament team standings: Maine Endwell 50, Vestal 22, Owego Free Academy 19, Norwich 17, Oneonta 17, Windsor 14, Susquehanna Valley 7, and Johnson City 4.
ONEONTA –The Norwich varsity tennis squad packed their bags and headed to Oneonta this past Thursday and Friday for the two-day Section IV Class B Tournament on May 12 and 13.
Ultimately falling short of a championship in both team and individual play, Norwich did perform well in the two day tournament, earning enough team points for a tie for the fourth place spot as a team with division rival Oneonta, each notching 17-points.
The Norwich post-season team consisted of Carlos Ithier at first singles, and Joel Fazio at second singles. While on the doubles side it was Jamison Luke and Cameron Edwards at first doubles with the duo of Austin Benenati and Zayn Harper at second doubles.
With a total of eight teams entering the tournament and each entering two doubles as well as two singles, the bracket was at full capacity causing no one to receive a bye in the first round.
Maine Endwell would pull away from the rest of the pack in terms of team and individual achievements, scoring 50 team points for the win and seeing an individual championship in both singles and doubles play.
Norwich advanced three of their four entrants past the first round, something Norwich head coach John Stewart emphasized as a main contributing reason for earning a fourth place finish as a team.
Singles
Carlos Ithier would enjoy early success at first singles in the tournament when he stepped on the court on the first day to defeat Nate Hacker of Johnson City in straight sets at 6-1 and 6-0.
“Carlos took out a weaker Johnson City kid, we kind of expected that,” said Stewart.
Advancing to the quarterfinals Ithier would face a much stiffer challenge from Oneonta's Chris Catan. Catan would down Ithier in two sets, beating him at 6-1 and 6-1. Catan would go on to lose to Maine Endwell in the semi-finals before bouncing back for a third place finish.
At second singles Joel Fazio was faced with his toughest challenge to date, when he was drawn in to face the number two seed from Windsor Jared Mirch. Despite some battle from Fazio, Mirch would earn the win over Fazio in the first round, winning 6-1 and 6-1. Mirch would go on to lose in the semi-finals and ultimately come up short to Catan for a fourth place finish in the consolation round.
Doubles
Norwich saw its greatest success in the way of the doubles side of the tournament.
At first doubles the high powered team of Cameron Edwards and Jamison Luke would struggle in the first round of the tournament, but ultimately earned the win over the Windsor doubles team of Brian Ellsworth and Michael Sova at 7-5 and 6-4.
“We were down in the first set, then got our game going and turned it around,” said Stewart. “In the end we too out a weaker team.”
After their win in the first round, Edwards and Luke would face off against a Vestal team which was hot off a an upset three set win over Oneonta's Sergi Blabia and Nicole van der Sommen.
“The Vestal team beat Oneonta's number one doubles team, both those kids beat us in regular season play,” said Stewart. “But out of nowhere comes a non-seeded Vestal team that takes Oneonta out. We prepared during the week to play Oneonta, and that Vestal team really played well. The bottom line when we played Vestal is we played really well and they expended a lot of energy beating Oneonta in a three setter.”
Edwards and Luke would go on to defeat the Vestal team of Lucas Fiske and Alex Niermeyer in twos sets at 6-3 and 6-2.
The semi-finals proved to be Norwich's undoing in the first doubles play when they faced off against the eventual winners from Maine Endwell. Griffin Goosman and Alec Greene would defeat Edwards and Luke, after a long three set battle. Norwich would surprisingly claim the first set at 6-1, before dropping the final two sets at 6-1 and 6-0 in favor of ME.
“We won the first set, and was thinking 'oh my god we're gonna go to the finals,' I got really excited, but by the third set it was so hot out. It was around 89 degrees, probably over 100 degrees on the court,” said Stewart. “We played a phenomenal first set,we couldn’t do anything wrong, and ME's number one seed couldn’t do anything right for that first set. Then ME turned their game around and started playing really, really well.”
This ME duo would go on to win the doubles bracket defeating the Vestal team of Max Feinberg and Haashim Shah 6-2 and 6-1.
Norwich impressively, despite not earning the win over ME, would be the only doubles team to take a set from Goosman and Greene in the tournament, when they claimed that first set victory to start the semi-finals.
Making it to the semi-finals insured that Edwards and Luke would get an addition match to attempt to take third individually. The other Maine Endwell team of Franco Inciti and Nicholas Pham would earn the third place win over Norwich at 6-2 and 6-4.
“We lost to the ME team 6-2 6-4, lost two deuce games in the first, we were up in both sets, but it is a different game when you go inside,” said Stewart of having to move the games inside on the second day due to the weather.
Second doubles saw Austin Benenati and Zayn Harper defeat Emily Harter and Kasie Stamp of Oneonta at 6-2 and 6-2.
“We took out Oneonta's number two doubles team like we should have. They were less experienced kids so that was expected,” said Stewart.
However, despite the early win Benanati and Harper would fall victim to the Vestal team of Max Feinberg and Haashim Shah who would ultimately appear in the finals against Maine Endwell. Benanati and Harper would battle to a 6-1 and 6-2 loss.
“We took out Windsor and tied Oneonta, I thought that was pretty good for us because that is two teams that took us out in the regular season. It was a little payback,” said Stewart.
With the conclusion of this tournament, Norwich varsity tennis will conclude its 2016 spring season with a 9-3 regular season record.
Tournament team standings: Maine Endwell 50, Vestal 22, Owego Free Academy 19, Norwich 17, Oneonta 17, Windsor 14, Susquehanna Valley 7, and Johnson City 4.
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