When defending champion Skaneateles petitioned for, and was granted, a move up to the Class B ranks, Cazenovia’s girls volleyball team automatically gained the Section III spot in the state tournament, which was the good part.

The bad part was twofold. First, it left a long gap between the end of the Lakers’ regular season and its state playoff appearance – two weeks, to be precise, since it had played in the Onondaga High School League Tournament at Phoenix on Oct. 27.

Worse, though, was that Cazenovia was slotted into a regional round against Eden, the Section VI powerhouse who has multiple state championships to its credit, including 2011, when it took out Skaneateles along the way.

Cazenovia and Eden got together in Saturday’s regional final at Jamesville-DeWitt High School, where again the Raiders proved too tough, sweeping the Lakers in three sets.

Each of the first two sets featured sporadic scoring from the Lakers, but Eden still took them by margins of 25-15 and 25-16. In the third set, the Raiders put it away by a 25-8 margin.

Forced to play lots of defense, the Lakers saw Madison Gabor earn eight digs, just ahead of Dominique Lyons, who had seven digs, and Samantha Prossner, who earned six digs.

Meanwhile, Amber Robinson gathered up eight assists, three digs and two kills. Kaitlyn Puukila earned a team-best four kills. Cazenovia finished its season with a record of 10-8.