In impressive style, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls volleyball team backed up its no. 2 seed and made it to the Section III Class AA championship match.
The Hornets hosted no. 3 seed Cicero-North Syracuse in Thursday night’s AA semifinal, and were in control throughout the match, taking just three sets to eliminate the Northstars.
These same two teams had met at F-M in this same round a year ago, and C-NS had prevailed, rallying from 2-1 down in sets to prevail in five. But the Hornets were, in this instance, well-rested, while the Northstars had played a first-round match (eliminating Central Square) two nights earlier.
F-M emerged with a 25-20 victory in the first set and smashed C-NS 25-15 in the second set. All through the third set, the Northstars tried to extend the match, but the Hornets, at 26-26, broke the tie and got match point to close it out 28-26.
Ivanka Temnycky led a deep F-M front line, earning nine kills. Jessica Palmiero picked up six kills, while Delaney Fuller had four kills and three blocks, and Lily Palmer added three kills. Lauren Carey fed all of them with 23 assists, adding four kills in the process.
This sends F-M into Wednesday night’s Class AA final – ironically, played in the C-NS gymnasium – and a likely shot at knocking off unbeaten top seed Baldwinsville.
As this went on, F-M’s boys volleyball team, a no. 3 seed in Class AA, vied for a shot in the sectional finals, only to fall in three sets to no. 2 seed B’ville 25-20, 25-11, 25-21.
Only close in the first and third sets, the Hornets saw Aravinth Mathuranayagam pick up 20 assists, many of his passes going to Louis Avellino, who had seven kills, four digs and two aces. Dan Silverman had five kills and three blocks, while Tom Sager and Parker Harris each got four kills. Sager and Max Lavelle managed five digs apiece.
Jamesville-DeWitt’s girls volleyball team had a mostly successful baptism into a fall schedule, making it to the Section III Class B playoffs.
And the no. 5 seed Red Rams nearly made it out of the first round, staging two different rallies in last Wednesday night’s opening-round match at no. 4 seed Homer before falling to the Trojans in five sets.
As it turned out, the opening set proved quite important. J-D was two points from claiming it, only to have Homer pull it out 26-24, which meant that, though the Rams rebounded to win the second set 25-20, it only made things even.
Beaten badly 25-11 in the third set, J-D again came back, claiming the fourth set 25-17. The fifth set, like the opener, was a tight one, but again the Trojans had enough points to eke out a 25-23 win and claim the match.
Through the long battle, Madi Alfieris came up with 26 assists. Up front, Jenna Hayward had 13 kills, adding nine digs, while Kristina Gitzen had 11 kills and two blocks.
Laura Wildridge blended in nine kills, three aces, three blocks and three digs. Carly Neugebauer added three kills as, on the defensive side, Olivia Jasinski managed 16 digs and Meghan Byrnes added 15 digs. Julia Norton got six digs.
Homer’s Lauren Smith had 11 kills and seven aces, aided by Linsay Sears (12 kills) as Emily Cottrell got 23 assists, six digs, five aces and four kills, and Emma Gutchess contributed 14 assists.
