In a long, tough battle, the Fayetteville-Manlius boys volleyball team took defending Class AA champion Cicero-North Syracuse to the wire Wednesday night, but lost to the Northstars in five games.

Each of the sets was a tight one. F-M struck first, squeaking out the opening set 25-23, only to have CNS claim each of the next two sets by margins of 25-22 and 25-21.

Pushed to the brink in the fourth set, the Hornets still pulled it out, 26-24, setting up a final game where, at last, F-M fell back a bit, taking a 25-21 defeat.

Aravinth Mathurayagam had 29 assists, his passes going to Kevin Sager and Jason Zipprich, each of whom had 13 kills. Sager also had five aces and four digs. Parker Harris got four kills. Louis Avellino and Julian Lavelle earned five digs apiece. On CNS’s side, Justin Collins had 46 assists as Geoff Holmes (16 kills, eight aces), Billy Werksman (12 kills) and Jordan Laris (11 kills) worked on the front line.

The Hornets did beat Central Square 25-20, 25-12, 26-24 on Friday night. Zipprich earned 11 kills, with Dan Silverman stepping up for eight kills and Sager getting six kills and five aces. Harris and Jordan Covel had four kills apiece. Mathurayagam earned 26 assists.

When the F-M girls volleyball team visited Utica Proctor last Tuesday night, it won in three games. Only the second game proved a struggle as the Hornets edged the Raiders 26-24, this after a 25-11 romp in the opener and a 25-14 cruise through the third game.

But it turned around Thursday when defending state Class AA champion Baldwinsville swept the Hornets 25-7, 25-4, 25-5. Ivanka Temnycky (five digs) and Lauren Carey (three digs) were defensive standouts, but the Bees were far too much as Paulina Rein (15 assists), Paulina Rein (eight kills) and Liz Giromini (six aces) led the way.