Section VI tennis tourney wraps up at Lakewood YMCA
LAKEWOOD — Three Buffalo-area girls punched their tickets to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association girls tennis championships with their performances in the Section VI championships Saturday at the Lakewood YMCA.
Williamsville South’s Syanne Tyson, Clarence’s Sofia Banifatemi and Lancaster’s Julia Valkanova will join four doubles pairs who qualified for the state tournament with quarterfinal wins Friday.
Tyson beat Clarence’s Victoria Kiener 6-0, 6-0 in the semifinals Saturday before outlasting Banifatemi 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 in the championship match.
To be Section VI’s third qualifier for states, Valkanova beat Kiener 6-0, 6-3 in the third-place match. Valkanova was relegated to the consolation match when she lost to Banifatemi 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinals.
Amherst’s Anna Wheat and Ada Radomski won the Section VI doubles crown with a 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 win over Orchard Park’s Amelia Pericak and Adrianna Roberts in the final.
Pericak and Roberts advanced to the final with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Clarence’s Gemma Hacker and Sahanna Varma in the semifinals.
Wheat and Radomski made it to the final with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Williamsville East’s Sophie Wang and Tabitha Swiatek.
Wang and Swiatek beat Hacker and Varma 6-1, 6-0 in the third-place match, which will be used for seeding purposes for the state championships.
The NYSPHSAA championships will take place Monday, Oct. 28 through Wednesday, Oct. 30 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing.