Lake Placid’s No. 1 singles player Henry Becker hits a kick serve in the Section VII boys tennis singles consolation match against Northeastern Clinton’s Kaze Carpenter at SUNY Plattsburgh on Friday. (Enterprise photo — Chris Gaige)

PLATTSBURGH — Lake Placid boys tennis No. 1 singles player Henry Becker punched his ticket once again to the state championships at Flushing Meadows with a third-place finish at the Section VII tournament on Wednesday and Friday at SUNY Plattsburgh and nearby Plattsburgh High School.

Becker was the only Blue Bomber to compete in the singles tournament, as the squad switched Parker Scanio, who had occupied the No. 2 singles position during the regular season, over to doubles. There were 30 doubles teams competing between the nine Section VII schools. Only the top three teams earned berths to the state tournament. All four Lake Placid doubles squads were eliminated in the first round.

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Singles tournament

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Becker earned his spot at states with a quarterfinals win on Wednesday, as the top four singles players go on to Flushing Meadows. Becker, who came into sectionals as the No. 1 seed, cruised through the early rounds. He won his opening match against Plattsburgh’s Soumar Bachawaty 6-1, 6-0. In the quarterfinals, he defeated Seton Catholic’s Kevin Nguyen 6-3, 6-3.

After securing his trip to Flushing Meadows, the section crown was still on the line. Becker faced a familiar opponent in the semifinals: Peru’s Collin Powers. The two had faced off the day before in a lengthy and close-fought match, with Becker pulling it off 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) to cap off the regular season.

Facing each other again in sectionals, it was the players’ third match of the day, and required both to dig deep and do their best to manage the exhaustion. Ultimately, Powers’ physicality and ability to grind down extended rallies proved decisive on Wednesday. He flipped the script from the regular season and emerged victorious, winning 7-5, 6-3 to hand Becker his only loss of the season so far. The finals and consolation matches were played on Friday after being rained out on Thursday.

After a day of rest, Becker bounced back to win the consolation match to earn third. Making masterful use of his slice, tossing in the occasional drop shot and banking on his big serve, Becker found his groove and grew stronger as the match went on. He defeated Northeastern Clinton’s Kaze Carpenter 7-5, 6-1.

In the finals, Powers pulled off another upset, defeating the tournament’s No. 2 seed, Beekmantown’s Dylan Brown, 7-5, 6-3. Brown had also previously defeated Powers in a sectional mathc. The win completed a meteoric rise for Powers, who only picked up tennis about a year ago. Despite not having a seed, Powers did not drop a set throughout his four tournament matches in what was a golden opportunity of sorts.

That was because last year saw the graduation of Section VII tennis perennial powerhouse Sebastien Bonnabesse of Plattsburgh. Bonnabesse won the sectional tournament in all four of his high school years, and his departure opened the field among the nine schools with tennis teams.

In most years, the top three finishers from each section go on to the state tournament. This year, however, Section VII was given an extra and fourth roster spot. These rotate between the 10 NYSPHSAA sections each year in order to make for a 32-player event. This means that Powers, Brown, Becker and Carpenter will all move on in what began as a field of 19 contenders — with three play-in matches prior to the first round.

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Doubles tournament

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The Blue Bombers did not have the day it was hoping for in doubles. Scanio teamed up with Porter Dominesey, who had played No. 1 doubles for most of the regular season. They were defeated in the first round by Northeastern Clinton’s Maxx Rabideau and Colton Castine 3-6, 6-0, 6-1.

The Blue Bombers’ regular season No. 2 doubles team of Levi Barney and Liam Gotham fell in the first round to Peru’s Connor Perotte and Evan Bruback, 6-1, 6-2. The two squads had just faced off against each other the day before, with a similar scoreline as the Nighthawks won that regular season match 6-2, 6-0.

Perotte and Bruback lost in the next round to Northeastern Clinton’s Cade Brooks and Jacob Martin, who, in turn, had defeated Lake Placid’s Alberth Gamez and Samir Dimuccio in the first round 6-0, 6-2. The Blue Bombers’ Ian Munson and Hayden Damour were defeated by Beekmantown’s Jack Thebert and Max Danville 6-3, 6-2. The Eagles were blanked 6-0, 6-0 in the next round by the eventual sectional champions team of Kingston Tucker and Parker Manor of Northern Adirondack.

Doubles matches were played through the quarterfinals on Wednesday, with the final four coming back to finish up business on Friday. There were no upsets here — the returning teams were the top four seeds. Unlike in singles, making it to the semifinals was not enough to guarantee a trip to states, raising the stakes.

Both semifinal matches were defined by crafty rallies, intense focus and, at times, fiery displays of passion. The atmosphere at times could have been mistaken for a Friday night lights game as teammates, family members and supporters chanted and cheered with gusto between big points.

Both matches were razor close and hinged on a handful of pivotal points as they both neared the two hour mark. After the dust settled, it was the top two seeds headed to the finals, with guaranteed trips to states. The Bobcats’ Tucker and Manor eked out a gritty 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 win over the Cougars’ Rabideau and Castine and the Eagles’ Jackson Goodwin and Santino Dabella clinched a 7-5, 7-5 victory over the Nighthawks’ Isaac Hathaway and Camden Sweeny.

The finals match once again went the distance The Bobcats’ Tucker and Manor were crowned champions in a roller coaster 6-2, 3-6, 6-0 finale over Goodwin and Dabella. In the consolation match, Hathaway and Sweeny cruised to a 6-3, 6-0 victory for third place.

The win was the cherry on top for an undefeated Northern Adirondack team, who captured Section VII’s team champions title. As such, they are slated to compete today against Section 2’s champion team of Glens Falls in the opening round of the state team championships hosted on neutral territory at Beekmantown. The team tournament takes a similar format to that of a regular season dual match, with the team securing at least three of the five individual match victories, winning the meet and moving on to the next round against another section’s champion team.

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State individual championships

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Held at the U.S. Tennis Association’s Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the same venue where the U.S. Open is played in late summer, the state championships feature a 32-player draw in both singles and doubles that pits the best players from each of the 10 participating NYSPHSAA sections against each other. The tournament’s opening rounds are slated to begin on Friday, with later rounds on Saturday and the finals set for Sunday.

Historically, it’s been hard knocks for Section VII tennis players at the state tournament, given tennis’s greater popularity downstate and in New York’s more populated areas — and the higher level of play it tends to produce. Last year, all but one of Section VII’s singles players and doubles teams lost in the first round with identical scores: 6-0, 6-0. The lone exception was Plattsburgh’s No. 2 singles Andrew Bula, who lost 6-1, 6-0.

Luck, or the lack thereof, likely played a role in the scores. Several of Section VII’s players drew first-round opponents who were either eventual state finalists or champions. That’s because in tennis draws, only the top players receive seeds, or guaranteed placements in the bracket. As its name suggests, most players are blindly “drawn” at random to determine their bracket spot, and who they have to get through to advance to the next round.

Lake Placid boys tennis coach and Section VII tennis coordinator Tyler Chase said this year, nobody from Section VII is expected to receive a seed, which is based on players’ universal tennis rating. This leaves it up to the luck of the draw. Chase added that they were hoping for some better luck than last year.

Still, the opportunity to compete in the championships, watch some of the best high school talent in the nation and experience the world-class venue are all things that Chase said make it an honor and incredible experience to go to states — and one that was fiercely competed for last week on the courts at SUNY Plattsburgh.