ONONDAGA COUNTY – Everyone on the Cicero-North Syracuse boys volleyball team is aware that, in 2021, its regular-season wins over Liverpool were turned around when the Warriors beat the Northstars in the Section III final.
So no one on C-NS is feeling content right now, even though it again finished off a regular-season sweep of Liverpool last Monday night in a tough four-set battle.
When they met on Sept. 20, it was a sweep, the host Northstars facing little stress. Now, at Liverpool, each of the first two sets were controlled by the visitors as C-NS won them by equal 25-17 margins.
Instead of going away, though, the Warriors were able to snare the third set 25-21, a rare instance of a Section III team able to get a set from C-NS at any point this fall.
This didn’t sit well with the Northstars, who by a 25-11 margin closed it out in the fourth led by Jack Waite, who dished out 42 assists and added five digs.
Joe Seliger put together 12 kills, five aces and six digs. Andrew George and Reece Congel had nine kills apiece, with Peter Gill earning eight kills. Josh Luce had nine digs as he, along with Nick Bisesi, got a pair of aces.
On Liverpool’s side, Anthony Pezzino finished with 16 kills and 18 digs, adding two aces and two blocks. Shah Sahak had 15 digs as Jack DeForge had 18 assists, six blocks, five digs and three kills. Sean Frawley also had four kills.
Back in action two nights later, Liverpool lost the first set to Syracuse City 25-20, but then took the next three sets 25-21, 25-19 and 25-17 to win the match.
Pezzino was a one-man show at the net, putting away a career-best 30 kills to go with four blocks, four aces and 11 digs.
DeForge fed Pezzino with 29 assists, adding six kills and seven blocks, with Frawley and Aiden Hunter both getting three kills. Sahak worked on defense, earning 22 digs.
C-NS, meanwhile, took on Central Square Friday night and kept its momentum going with a 25-11, 25-18, 25-17 sweep of the Redhawks.
Seliger put up six aces to go with his nine kills. Gill earned seven kills, with Congel and George again matching one another, this time with six kills, and Carter King earning four kills as Waite got 26 assists.
