South girls tennis finishes third; Meyers qualifies for sectionals

The Williamsville South girls tennis team finished the regular season 6-4 to secure third place in ECIC Division III.

Last Monday, the Lady Billies defeated Maryvale, 5-0, to set up a Wednesday match against first place Starpoint.

First singles Ellen Meyers secured her position as the top singles player in the division with a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Starpoint's Jenna Maldiner. South's second singles player, Stephanie Berland, came very close to upsetting Starpoint's Katie Billingsley, but lost the final set 4-6 after splitting the first two sets.

Third singles Katie Dukarm played tough in the first set but lost a tiebreaker as did the second doubles team of Joanna Ostroot and Lydia Seidler.

On Friday, South's top singles players participated in the ECIC singles championships at the Village Glen. In the first round, Meyers defeated John F. Kennedy's Kaylee Kukliewicz, 6-1, 6-2, and Berland defeated Miranda Zittle of Springville, 6-2, 6-4.

The second round saw Meyers lose to East Aurora's Alaina Reukauf and Berland falling to Orchard Park's Catie Wickline. Both girls were victorious in their consolation matches with Meyers defeating Amherst's Liz Greco, 4-1, 4-2, and Berland defeating Clarence's Hayle Clover, 4-5, 5-4, 4-0.

On Saturday, Meyers lost to Orchard Park's Jenny Waris and Berland lost to Maldiner. In their final match of the day, the South girls faced off against each other with Meyers defeating Berland, 4-2, 5-3. Meyers finished the tournament in 11th place; Berland in 12th.

Because Orchard Park players dropped out of the tournament to play in the ECIC doubles this week, Meyers moved up to eighth place and will represent ECIC at the Section VI championships Oct. 26-27 at the Miller Tennis Center.