Hoisting the Section VI title for the first time left Lewiston-Porter hungry for more. And when it had another opportunity to clinch, it had to go through East Aurora again, with both teams meeting for a third straight year.
The Lancers had already won the Niagara Frontier League title with a 14-0 record and entered the sectional championship having won 70 straight matches in league play, plus a 16-1 record overall. But heading into the sectional team championship, there was a format change, now with two singles and three doubles.
But for the second time in as many years, a sectional team championship is returning to Youngstown. Behind wins in second and third doubles from the duos of Isabella Violante and Makayla Farnham and Lauren Fura and Skylar Elliott and the clinching point from Ellie Latorre in first singles, the Lancers defeated East Aurora, 5-0, in the Section VI Division II championship Tuesday at Maryvale High School in Cheektowaga.
The win now sends Lew-Port to the state quarterfinal against a winner from Section V on Oct. 25 at the Village Glen in Williamsville. And compared to last year’s run, the Lancers had more confidence on the big stage, with Liliana Unversaw in second singles and the duo of Lily Baird and Elizabeth Adamson in first doubles rounding out the final points.
“I look at our girls and I say from a talent perspective, yes, we’re very good,” Lew-Port head coach Brian Hall said. “But the way they compete is just at a whole different level. … We just compete better and we don’t give up one point. We don’t give up on one game. We could be down 5-0 and the girls still have confidence that they’re going to come back and win.”
Last year’s championship win against East Aurora also ended in a 5-0 win. But in this year’s edition, the Lancers relied on their strengths in the doubles and singles matches.
For the Lancers, it was once a group effort, with Unversaw improving to 19-0 on the season while Latorre is now 38-4 in league play over the last three seasons.
“Our (doubles) girls work really hard at being consistent from the baseline and being given our net player a chance to jump on the first ball they can,” Hall said. … Lily has power when she needs it but she’s just very, very consistent and just likes to move the player around . … Ellie has a little bit more power in her game and her strategy is to kind of move the player around but punish her a little bit with her power.”