Grosso Takes 1st and Toga Tennis Takes 2nd

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Nick Grosso becomes Saratoga’s first ever Section II Singles Champion, and Toga Tennis gets second place after a hard-fought match in the Section II AA Team Finals.

The Individual Sectional II Tournament for high school tennis was held on Tuesday, June 15. After defeating Ashrith Rao (6-2, 6-2) from Bethlehem in the semi-finals, Grosso advanced and defeated Albany Academy’s Will O’Brien (6-2, 6-0) to claim the Section II Boys’ Tennis Singles Champion title. Grosso ends his tennis career at Saratoga with a perfect 18-0 season. 

Also held this past Tuesday were the Section II Doubles Championships. Saratoga’s doubles team of Andrew Blaha and Vincent Devito finished third. 

Back on Friday, June 11, two of the area premier tennis programs, Saratoga and Bethlehem, faced off in the Section II Team Finals. Bethlehem defeated Saratoga 5-4 to win the championship title. 

Saratoga came out strong in the first three singles matches – Nick Grosso defeated Ashrith Rao, Andrew Blaha defeated Will Bievenue, and Jackson Katusha defeated Graham Hardiman. Then there were numerous three set matches, such as the 4th and 6th singles matches. In the 4th, Vincent Devito lost to Bethlehem’s Hayden Brown. In the 6th, Ian Hill defeated Bethlehem’s Tao Xie. Coming back to the results of 5th singles match, Liam Chartrand lost to Bethlehem’s Aden Haas.

In the doubles matches, Ryan Clancy and Kevin Rosas lost to Jack Burman and Emi Torlasco, Devin Kim and Toby Webber lost to Nyle Dennin and David Bievenue, and Nate Krackeler and Declan Ladd lost to Joey Mocerine and Conner Darcy. Both the 2nd and 3rd doubles matches were 3 sets as well.