CENTRAL NEW YORK – The long boys volleyball rivalry between Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool has heated up in this decade, particularly in 2021, when the Warriors put an end to the Northstars’ long Section III Division I championship reign.
Now both sides find themselves looking up at Fayetteville-Manlius in the standings, something that did not change last Tuesday night as C-NS again got the best of this chapter.
It was the Warriors winning the first set 25-22, but all that did was make the Northstars angry, which it channeled into easy 25-14 and 25-16 wins in the next two sets.
Then came the fourth set. Several attempts to either end (for C-NS) or extend (for Liverpool) the match fell short until at 26-26, the Northstars got the serve and closed out the match 28-26.
Earning a full set’s worth of points, Carter King put away 26 kills for C-NS, helped by Phillip Greer’s 10 kills and Chris Williams’ six kills. Jack Waite earned 40 assists, Josh Luce getting 14 digs and King earning 10 digs.
In defeat, the Warriors had Jack DeForge get 16 kills and nine digs. Chase Loveless stepped up with seven kills and Sean Frawley had four kills as Kellen Conway produced 28 assists and Shah Sahak had 14 digs.
Back in action on Thursday night, Liverpool faced Syracuse City and had the closest possible battle with them, ultimately prevailing in four sets.
Remarkably, each of the four sets ended with the same final total of 25-23. The Warriors pulled out the first two sets, only to have Syracuse win the third and nearly the fourth before Liverpool closed it out.
Many of Conway’s 34 assists went to DeForge, who piled up 17 kills. Chase Loveless stepped up with eight kills, Frawley adding seven kills and Ben McHerron getting five kills. Sahak finished with 11 digs, Conway and DeForge earning seven digs apiece.
C-NS played twice on the weekend – and won them both, starting with Friday’s 25-16, 25-17, 25-18 sweep of Midlakes where Waite’s 29 assists were spread around.
King put up 13 kills, adding two aces and three assists. Greer gained eight kills, with Waite stepping up to earn seven kills and Jack Wieczorek six kills as Colin Deitz had five kills.
Then came a 25-15, 25-17, 25-17 win over Rochester McQuaid on Saturday where Joey Lukasiewicz led with seven kills ahead of King’s six kills. Wieczorek picked up five aces, Waite had 18 assists and Luce, with 12 digs, led the defense.
Both C-NS and Liverpool have matches this week against Jamesville-DeWitt, the reigning state Division II champions who reasserted its superiority by sweeping previously unbeaten F-M in three sets last Thursday.
