MENDON, N.Y. – Section V Girls’ Tennis hosted the Individual State Qualifiers for both singles and doubles on Wednesday and Thursday, October 19th and 20th at Mendon Racquet Club. The Class A1, A2, B1, and B2 sectional winners along with runner-ups squared off for a spot in the NYSPHSAA State Championships that will be held October 27th-29th at Sportime Tennis in Schenectady.
Sixteen players took the courts in the singles match ups. By Thursday morning, four players, all familiar faces at this event, were left to challenge one another for a spot in the finals. Omika Patel (Pittsford Mendon) and Sophia Carling (Harley) participated last year, while Leyla Tozin (Brighton) and Larisa Kotok (Marion) were last year’s finalists. Kotok was the runner up at the State Championship in 2021.
In the semifinals, Kotok defeated Carling 6-2, 6-1, while Tozin defeated Patel 6-0, 6-0 setting up the rematch from 2021’s finals when Kotok defeated Tozin in three competitive sets. However, this year the script flipped and Tozin was victorious defeating Kotok in the championship 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. In the playback round Carling defeated Patel 6-3, 6-3 to place third at the event. All four singles players will advance to the State Championship tournament next week.
Thirty-two players took the courts as sixteen doubles teams competed for their opportunity to one of the three spots that will advance to the state championships. Last year’s champions Elizabeth Norris and Kylie Mariano (Brighton) advanced to play in the semi-finals on Thursday, as did Natalie Pipes and Meghan Abbott (Victor), Jessica Yao and Jenny Zhao (Pittsford Mendon), and Caroline Fitzsimmons and Ava Hartzell (Mercy). Norris and Mariano defeated Pipes and Abbott 6-1,6-3. The marathon match of the day occurred between Yao and Zhao and Fitzsimmons and Hartzell lasting almost three hours. Although Yao and Zhao lost the first set 4-6, they battled back in the second set to win in the tie break 7-6(3) and ultimately won the third set 7-5. In the finals, Norris and Mariano defeated Yao and Zhao 6-0, 6-0 thus defending their championship title from last year.
Both teams will advance to the State Championship tournament next week as will Pipes and Abbott who defeated Fitzsimmons and Hartzell 6-3, 6-3 in the playback round.
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