Sarah Mattison earns 50th win, sectional title in doubles
By JOHN ANDERSON, pictured are Mattison with doubles partner with Peyton Cawley
After three straight Section V championships, the 2025 girls’ tennis season was supposed to be a rebuilding one. In the lineup, all three singles players are different. Both doubles teams are different.
In fact, with just six players on the roster, Wellsville is down 1-0 because of a forfeit at third singles each match. That didn’t stop coach Billy Stives from putting together a historic season.
Wellsville senior Sarah Mattison, who has spent most of her career as either third singles or doubles was put in the toughest spot in the lineup: first singles.
She won so much, she achieved 50 career wins in singles despite playing a majority of doubles matches the past four years.
Mattison and the Lions were not done yet. With the graduation of Caitlin Bittel, Mattison had a new partner, paired up in doubles with Peyton Cawley, a career singles player.
The Mattison/Cawley team won the Section V Class B2 doubles championship on Sunday in Canandaigua, defeating Rose Helmke-Sanders and Frances Baynes.
The Wellsville Lions didn’t stop there. In the first round of sectionals on Monday against Canisteo-Greenwood, Wellsville (9-5-1) started with the forfeit loss then won to advance. The team takes on Lyons tonight in the semi-finals.
No matter what happens, for the first time in her career, Mattison moves on to state qualifiers as a doubles sectional champion. She has played in state qualifiers before, but always as an at-large bid.
“It feels good to go into qualifiers as a sectional champion,” Mattison said. “We go in as the champion. We always got beat out in the semi finals or the quarterfinals. It felt nice to finally get there.”
The biggest compliment for Mattison and Cawley (a junior) came from other coaches.
“The other coaches agreed, they (Mattison and Cawley) are not true singles players or doubles players, but they are very smooth out there and really did not have a weakness,” said Stives. “They played the points out and Sarah had some amazing serves and retrievals. It was the most consistent she’s ever served. Sometimes in doubles you have the strong player and the weaker player. In this case, you didn’t — they were both strong.”
Mattison quickly added, “Peyton’s cross-court shots got tougher and that, along with serving, was the difference.”
Word got out. After the match, Sarah checked her cell phone.
“McKenna Wonderling (who played first doubles last season with Shayla Cowan) texted me congratulations,” she said. “Then Caitlin Bittel and Sam Bidzerkowny (first singles champion from last year) and soon it was everybody!”
It was a welcome moment after an intense championship.
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“We played HAC this year who moved down into B2 and they are a really good school. We had the mindset to have fun,” Sarah said. “We knew we had a chance and we were really focused. On Saturday against HAC in our final match, we wanted it bad. It was 2-1, 3-2, it was a one point difference until 8-8 and we got ahead 9-8, The last point we went into deuce. It was the scariest part of my career. If we lost it, we would go to a tie-breaker and the girls from HAC had the momentum, they were the No. 1 seed.”
Mattison added, “But at the end, it clicked and we were able to hold the line long enough to win this.”
Stives smiles when he talks about Mattison, who is currently at 54 wins. He also brought up the teams the past three seasons. Mattison had to go against them in practice each day, from singles to doubles.
“She is very athletic, and she is willing to work hard and make changes in her game,” Stives said. “Three years in a row, practice meant going against Section V champions.”
The Mattison’s were on hand for the celebration, pictured above are Brother Cohlton, dad Jason, mom Vicky, Sarah, grandpa Gary, grandma Nancy, brother Dahlton.
There were so many others. Hanna Miles, Kelsey Seely, Meagan Riley … the list goes on.
“I think it’s a product of being around a lot of other good players over the years, working against them and hitting against them,” Stives said. “Over the years, she’s had some strong practice partners.”
The team this year was Mattison, a senior and junior Cawley at second singles. At first doubles is Jaiden Edwards (junior) and Madigan Murphy (freshman). Second doubles are Felicity Thomas (junior) and Ashlyn Mosher (junior). A few new faces next season and the Lions will be at full strength with another title within reach.
As the team looks to go after four in a row tonight, Stives is happy with the short-handed Lions going 9-5-1. But he also remembers the season he had just four players. It shows the incredible progress.
“I had a team of four, we had Molly Cole, Cassie Gling, Natalie Taylor and Skylyn Coy,” Stives said. “We went 1-10-1 and when we tied our first match, Molly Cole came to me and said ‘I’ve never seen anyone so happy with a tie.’ But I was. And then, when we won one, I was really shocked! We were not bad, we were just short-handed.”
The Lions season this year was one of improvement. The losses have been 3-2 after starting 0-1. They lost to Fillmore and Wayland-Cohocton, but in the second meeting of the season, they won against both teams.
“It took us half the season for everyone to really click in terms of their abilities and knowing their role on the team,” Stives said. “Everyone started playing better. Was there one thing? No. I think some of our younger players gained confidence. And Sarah and Peyton caught on fire.”
