Once more, the Baldwinsville girls volleyball team made it through the regular season unblemished against its league foes and now could focus on defending its long-held Section III Class AA title.
The Bees got a tough test at Fayetteville-Manlius last Tuesday night. After winning the first set 25-14, B’ville was pushed hard in the second set, having to pull it out 26-24 before closing out the Hornets 25-21 in the third set.
Summer McClintic took her turn as the Bees’ top setter and earned 30 assists. Her passes often went to Sophia Cronk, who had 13 kills, and Rileigh Kimball, who had 12 kills.
Katie Welcher finished with five kills, three blocks and three aces, while Carly May contributed four digs. F-M had Erianna Madill earn 23 assists and Saara Vahtola earn 13 kills, plus six digs.
B’ville would host Cicero-North Syracuse Thursday night, honoring its trio of seniors – Claire McAllister, Maddie Stone and Kristen Liu – before taking to the court against the Northstars.
Tearing through the first set 25-8, the Bees then won the second set 25-17, and then stumbled a bit in the third set with a 25-20 defeat before closing out the Northstars 25-16 in the fourth.
In their last regular-season home matches, Liu had four kills and McAllister two kills. McClintic earned 42 assists, passing it to a front line where Cronk put up 14 kills, Welcher had 11 kills and five blocks, and Kimball contributed 10 kills, plus three aces.
Meanwhile, in boys volleyball, Baldwinsville followed up its most difficult stretch of the season with a solid effort last Monday against Jamesville-DeWitt.
The first set was close, but once the Bees won that set 25-23, it dominated the Red Rams 25-8 in the second set before claiming the third set by a 25-20 margin.
Dan Cerqua, with 22 assists, and Tom Higman, with 13 assists, shared back-line duties, giving the Bees much-needed depth there as Aidan Priest earned four digs.
Up front, Tyler Aiello led with 18 kills, plus four digs. Nate Johns had 10 kills and two aces as Luc Jerome got five kills, Cole Zsemyle four kills and David Cornell three kills.
B’ville then swept the Syracuse City team Wednesday night, claiming 25-11 wins in the first and third sets with a 25-13 second set in between.
Connor Garvey picked up four aces and six kills, with Greg Porceng getting nine kills and three aces. Johns and Keegan Stan had their own three-ace efforts as Cornell got four kills and Aiello had three kills. Higman had 13 assists and Cerqua got seven assists.
This busy week ended with a match Friday against Central Square, where B’ville won the first two sets 25-14 and 25-17 and nearly got a sweep, only to lose the third set 27-25 and get in trouble in the fourth set, too.
Still, by a 25-23 margin, the Bees closed out the Redhawks as Aiello managed 13 kills, with Zsemyle stepping up thanks to eight kills and six blocks. Johns had seven kills and Jerome added five kills. Cerqua got 27 assists as Priest had seven digs, three aces and three kills.
