ROCHESTER, NY – The top seed in the West Division (Nazareth), took down the second seed in the East Division with a 5-0 sweep in the Empire 8 Semifinals on Friday at the Annette Shapiro Courts. It will be the fifth-straight season that the Golden Flyers will be playing in the championship game with the last and only title coming in 2022. 

The championship will be hosted on Saturday at the Annette Shapiro courts at 1 p.m. Nazareth will square off against the winner of No. 2 Oswego (West) and No. 1 Thomas (East) in the title match.
Nazareth improves to 12-7 overall, while Norwich drops to 10-4.

The Golden Flyers set the tone early by taking all three doubles matches. Max Funiciello and Griffin Bond cruised at first doubles 8-0. Chris Benedict and Noah Britton broke a 5-5 tie by winning the next three games to take second doubles 8-5. Pierre Ntonga and David Tuller were victorious at third doubles 8-2.

Benedict (fifth singles) and Tuller (sixth singles) were each winners by a 6-0, 6-0 score to close out the match.