Both the Canastota and Oneida girls volleyball teams found the ending to their 2011 Section III playoff runs too sadly familiar.
Just as in 2010, the Raiders went into the Class B semifinals undefeated, only to get toppled, this time by Marcellus in a three-game sweep Wednesday night at Chittenango High School that marked an end to the historic high school volleyball career of Raiders senior Jessica Patterelli.
A few miles up the road, in the Class A semifinals at Jamesville-DeWitt, Oneida met the same Fulton side that beat them in last year’s championship match – and again the Red Raiders prevailed, this time in four games.
Canastota had a chance to atone for last season’s semifinal defeat to Cazenovia. What added to the similarities to 2010 was that, just like the Lakers, the Mustangs are moving its program to the fall, so it amounted to one more chance for the Raiders to knock off a long-established power.
In the first game, Canastota led 4-3 when Marcellus got the serve back – and with powerful junior Nicole Fletcher delivering the serves, the Mustangs reeled off five straight points to take the lead. At 19-15, Fletcher got the serve back and closed out the game with six in a row, including an ace on game point.
Beaten 25-15, the Raiders also lost the first five points of the second game – 11 in a row – before finally getting on the board again. Once there, Canastota battled to an 8-7 lead, but it didn’t last.
Still tied at 11-11, the Raiders saw Marcellus put up four straight points, and just like the opener it got the last six points, too, to win again 25-15 and go up 2-0 in games.
For a long while, it looked like Canastota would extend the match in the third game, breaking things open with six straight points on Patterelli’s serve to go up 18-11. Yet Marcellus caught up, then caught a huge break when a Raider point to put them ahead 21-19 was negated by an improper rotation.
So instead of having a game point, Canastota only led 23-22 when the Mustangs won the serve back and got two straight points. The Raiders fought off one match point, but not the second as Marcellus won 26-24 to advance to the finals against South Jefferson.
Patterelli, Section III’s all-time assist leader, added 15 more to the total, plus four digs and three blocks. Stephanie Thornton had eight kills, while Tracie O’Hern had four kills. Katelyn Rounds (nine digs) and Samantha McCarthy (seven digs) excelled on the defensive side.
Fletcher led Marcellus with 13 kills, four digs, three aces and three blocks as Jena Annable (17 assists) and Jess Cost (eight assists, 11 digs) worked on the back line.
As for Oneida, the no. 2 seed Indians figured to have a better shot this time around against Fulton, who entered the semifinals as a no. 6 seed, and it promptly ran out to a 17-9 lead in the first game.
But a long series of mistakes, combined with Fulton’s near-perfect service, led to an 11-3 run that pulled the Red Raiders even at 20-20. Moments later, Fulton went ahead for good and pulled out that opener 25-22.
It had a long-term effect, too, for the Indians continued to make mistakes in the second game and lost 25-17. Even in the third game, Oneida’s 22-10 lead nearly vanished before it prevailed 25-19, and Fulton, unfazed by this, put it away with a 25-12 romp through the fourth game.
Shannon Dowling finished with 10 assists and three aces as Melissa Murawski earned nine assists. Paige Pendleton put up nine kills and five blocks, while Candra Connelly mixed in six aces, five kills and three blocks. Lena Reginelli posted four kills.
Fulton, who will face Homer for the Class A title Saturday on that same J-D court, had Kali Kearns post 18 assists as Kirsten Francis added seven kills and 10 digs.
