Fresh off winning its own holiday tournament, the Jordan-Elbridge girls volleyball team returned to the Onondaga High School League portion of its schedule in the early days of 2012.
And the Eagles lost its first two matches of the New Year before a Friday battle with Cato-Meridian where, in five sets, J-E would prevail to improve its overall record to 5-7.
They would trade momentum swings throughout the night, as J-E won the first set 25-20 and lost the second set 25-21. The Eagles dominated the third set 25-15 but could not finish off the Blue Devils, who took the fourth set 25-22.
Cato also went ahead 5-1 in the fifth set, but with a 7-0 run J-E surged ahead for good and rolled to a 25-17 win to close out the match.
Libero Kali Kimak led the Eagles’ defense, as she, along with Katie Byrnes and Samantha Ryan, put up 25 digs apiece. Byrnes also had 11 kills, while Kimak got seven kills and five aces. Paige Brown managed 16 assists and Olivia Simmons added 12 assists, with Emma Cooney picking up six kills and six aces.
The Eagles met Hannibal last Tuesday night, falling to the Warriors in four sets. J-E dropped the first two sets 25-18 and 25-15, only to stay alive by winning the third set 25-19 and nearly sending the match to the limit before losing the fourth set 26-24.
Brown had 10 assists, five digs and three kills. Byrnes mixed in seven kills and 11 digs, with Simmons managing 10 assists and six digs. Ryan and Kerry Mack each matched Byrnes’ total of 11 digs, while Coomey had five kills.
J-E also lost Thursday to Chittenango 26-24, 25-23, 25-8, unable to recover from seeing the Bears win all of the important points in those first two sets. Simmons, with eight kills, and Brown, with seven kills, worked on the front line as Cooney (six assists), Kali Kimak (five assists) and Byrnes (four assists) fed passes.
