The Amsterdam Lady Rams tennis team learned Thursday morning that they would advance in the Section 2 Class A tournament to face Burnt Hills – Ballston Lake High School in a semi final match Thursday afternoon at the second seeded Lady Spartans of Burnt Hills – Ballston Lake High School with the winner to play against either Averill Park High School or top seeded Albany Academy for Girls.
Wednesday’s match against Holy Names Academy was delayed due to rain, but the Lady Rams advanced when Holy Names Academy decided to forfeit the match. Entering as the number three seed, the Lady Rams improved to 15-0. Earning wins for the Lady Rams in singles were; Kristie Kaczmarek 6-2 over Lisa Hladik, Ella Dybas 6-0 over Lauren Hardman, Audrey Flint 6-0 over Mary Fritz, Caitlin Gannon 6-1 over Maddie Clark, and Arizona Santiago over Maggie Fritz 6-1.
The Lady Rams doubles team of Tessa Filiberto and Gabby Disalvi were victorious 6-0 over Alex Daily and Madeline Vogel, and Molly Monge and Prahba Singh won 6-0 over Grace Hayes and Elizabeth Kavanaugh.
The Class A tennis sectionals run on a tight schedule with the winners of the semi final matches playing in the championship match on Friday.
The Amsterdam Lady Rams were leading their first round sectional match with Academy of the Holy Names Wednesday afternoon at the AHS tennis courts when Mother Nature intervened in the form of a twenty minute rain shower. Despite the valiant efforts of coaches and volunteers to make the courts playable the match was left to be continued with Amsterdam leading six of the seven matches.
“It’s unfortunate,” said AHS coach Maura Dargush. “I thought we could get through the rain.”
The Lady Rams as the number three seed in Section 2 Class A bracket, were locked in a competitive match with the number six seed Holy Names Academy when dark clouds moved in quickly and rain began in the distance eventually moving across the courts. Three of the five singles matches and both doubles matches were through to the second set.
AHS’ Kristie Kaczmarek had just finished her first set and led Lisa Hladaik 6-2 when rain began to fall.
Caitlin Gannon was up 6-1, 2-1 over Maddie Clark, and Arizona Santiago was ahead of Maggie Fritz 6-1, 1-2. The number one doubles team of Tessa Filiberto and Gabby Disalvi were leading Alex Daily and Madeline Vogel 6-0, 2-1 and the number two doubles team of Molly Monge and Prahba Singh led Grace Hayes and Elizabeth Kavanaugh by the same score.
Amsterdam’s number three singles player Audrey Flint and number two singles Ella Dybas were still in their first sets. Flint led Mary Fritz 6-5, and Dybas was tied 4-4 with Lauren Hardman.
“We were up and going good,” said Coach Dargush. “Now you just want to move on.”
The semi finals and finals of the tennis sectionals are scheduled for Thursday and Friday. The time and place for completion of the match had yet to be determined. The winner could play the winner of the Queensbury and Burnt Hills match as early as Thursday afternoon.
