With the Cicero-North Syracuse boys volleyball team at 5-2 going into the week and Liverpool at 4-1, their match last Monday night was expected to be a close, tense standoff that took at least four sets, maybe five, to complete.
Instead, the Northstars, showing top form, swept the Warriors, claiming a close opening set 25-22 and winning the third set by that same margin, with a 25-15 second set in between.
Garrett Coleman averaged more than 10 assists per set and had 31 overall, feeding it to Josh Rodriguez, who had 14 kills, and Morgan Austen, who managed 11 kills. Sean Korbas, with five kills, and Andrew Boczyk, with four kills and two aces, offered ample assistance.
Meanwhile, the Warriors faltered despite 13 kills from Joe Kenney and 18 assists from Dalton Horton, with Anthony Calabrese keeping points alive with his 14 digs.
From there, Liverpool proceeded to drop an excruciatingly close decision to Fayetteville-Manlius on Wednesday, where it could not hold a two-set lead. It won the opener 25-23 and rolled through the second set 25-11, only to have the Hornets win the next two sets by margins of 25-13 and 25-16.
Regrouping in the final set, the Warriors were two points from victory before F-M, at 24-24, won back the serve and got the match point needed to end it 26-24.
Horton, with 42 assists, fed it to Kenney, who had 16 kills, and Peter Humphreys, who had 10 kills and three blocks. James Foley had six kills and two blocks, with Ryan Turner adding five kills and two blocks and Calabrese gaining 11 digs. F-M featured Louis Avellino, who had 27 kills, five aces and six digs, and Mike Boshart, who amassed 45 assists.
The C-NS match at Oswego on Wednesday was quite close, but it was the Buccaneers winning three consecutive sets by the same 25-23 margin.
Coleman had 19 assists, his passes going to Rodriguez, with 10 kills and five digs, and Austen, who had seven kills. Korbas managed five assists as Robert Palucci and Jordan Schneible both got six digs. Oswego’s Zach Gillard earned most of his 24 kills thanks to passes from Ryan Lavner, who finished with 25 assists.
