Onondaga — A moment arrived Wednesday afternoon during the Section III Class C championship match at Onondaga Community College’s Allyn Hall when the Skaneateles girls volleyball team finally felt like it was ready to challenge its Laker counterparts from Cazenovia.
It came early in the second set. Having lost the first set, and having not gained a set from Cazenovia in either of their two regular-season encounters, Skaneateles strung together points and grabbed a 9-2 lead, seriously threatening to extend its season a little bit longer.
Just as quickly, though, Cazenovia snuffed it out, and went on to yet another three-set victory that produced a third consecutive sectional Class C title at the expense of a Skaneateles side trying to claim its first sectional honors since 2012.
The roots of this match were planted in the off-season. Beaten twice in regional play by Section VI powerhouse Eden, Cazenovia changed its tactics, employing, among other things, jump serves, which carry a greater risk of going out of bounds – but also can lead to easy points without a great deal of physical labor.
Now, against a Skaneateles side it already beat twice head-to-head on Sept. 24 and Oct. 13 Cazenovia won the all-important coin toss and got to serve first. Jenna Britton promptly delivered an ace. Then another strong serve led to another point. Between Britton and Paige Nardella, Cazenovia bolted out to a 6-1 lead in the opening set.
Not until the score was 17-9 in Cazenovia’s favor did Skaneateles earn a point on its own serve, and by then the deficit was too much to overcome, the set ending 25-15 in the champions’ favor.
When Skaneateles gained that 9-2 edge in the second set, Cazenovia served its way back, using a 17-3 run to turn it around, leading to a 25-19 victory and a two-sets-to-none margin.
continued — Britton got a chance to open the third set, and she promptly delivered six consecutive points. Then, on Lauren Lyons’ serve, Cazenovia put together another 9-0 run and broke the set open, eventually closing it out 25-16.
Battling to the end, Margaret Canty led Skaneateles with nine assists and three digs, while Emma Goodell earned 11 digs and Olivia Nye added four digs.
Bella Falcone (three assists) and Cassidy Pitman (two assists) also helped out, with freshman Jessica Patalino earning a team-best four kills. Bailey Herr and Emily Baldwin each got two kills, with Herr adding a pair of aces.
Cazenovia saw Britton earn four aces to go with her 24 assists and Danielle Tedesco also get four aces, plus 12 kills and six blocks. Lyons and Molly Carges had two aces apiece, with Carges matching Morgan Hodinger’s total of six kills. Nardella contributed four kills.
An up-and-down Skaneateles ended with an 11-8 record. Six seniors will graduate, including Canty, Herr and Kelsey Kraetz, though Patalino, Pitman, Goodell, Baldwin and Karah Blair lead a strong returning group for 2016.
