Regardless of the school or gender, things did not go well for volleyball teams from Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse in a string of Section III Class AA playoff matches.
Of them, Liverpool’s girls may have taken the most surprising defeat. As the no. 2 seed in Class AA, it had a bye straight into the semifinals and a home match against no. 3 seed West Genesee, but the Wildcats managed to upend the Warriors in four sets.
They had met twice in the regular season, Liverpool prevailing in four sets in the Sept. 3 opener and again in a five-set battle on Oct. 10. But WG would save its best performance for the most meaningful encounter.
Unable to gain much traction, Liverpool (13-3) lost each of the first two sets by scores of 25-22 and 25-17. The Warriors did prevail 25-20 in the third set, but the Wildcats rebounded and, by a 25-21 margin, closed out the match in the fourth.
No one on the Warriors’ front line got more than the 10 kills put up by Emily Flohr, who added seven digs. Dallas Merola had six kills and five digs, while Sam Wolf had five kills and 11 digs.
Meg Stonebarger picked up five kills to go with her 30 assists and five digs. Amanda Lauricella managed a team-best 12 digs as Juila Mumpton had four digs and four kills. Maggie Conklin contributed a pair of kills.
For WG, Kara Sweeney put up 30 assists, to go with 10 digs, three aces and two kills, while Courtney Shoults earned 20 digs. Brianna Richardson (14 kills) and Jessie Allen (10 kills) led the Wildcats’ front line.
As for Cicero-North Syracuse, who had the no. 5 seed in Class AA, its season would end in last Tuesday night’s opening round with a three-set defeat to no. 4 seed Fayetteville-Manlius.
Playing on its home court, the Hornets never let the Northstars really get settled, claiming the first set 25-17 and the second set 25-14 before closing it out, 25-18, in the third set.
Kelsey Hess, with nine assists, and Jess Doran, with six assists and three aces, worked on the back line, while Elizabeth Miles had a team-best six kills. Hannah Narbaugh added five kills as Miriam Ghabarou finished with six digs and three kills.
Tiffany Ryan had 14 digs and Samantha Roberts gained seven digs. Yet none of that could save C-NS as Sam Guillaume had 36 assists and five Hornets had five or more kills, with Lily Palmer’s 14 kills and 13 digs leading the way.
A night later, C-NS saw its boys volleyball team bid for a shot at playing at home for the sectional final, only to take a four-set defeat to top seed Oswego.
This was the same Buccaneers side the Northstars had dragged to the wire a week earlier, on Oct. 23, only to lose an epochal 35-33 fifth set which slid C-NS all the way to the no. 4 seed for the five-team sectional tournament.
C-NS did beat no. 5 seed Liverpool in that opening-round match two days after the Oswego classic, but in its rematch with the Bucs it would only find more frustration.
Oswego won the opening set 25-19, and was close to a larger edge before the Northstars pulled out the second set 26-24 to even the match.
Here, the third set proved pivotal. Both sides had multiple chances to win it before, at 27-27, the Bucs gained the serve and closed it out, 29-27. The fourth set nearly matched the third, C-NS nearly extending it to a fifth set, only to have Oswego again prevail, 26-24, to advance.
Garrett Coleman led the Northstars, earning 37 assists and 10 digs, plus two aces and two kills. Josh Rodriguez had 19 kills, four blocks and five digs, while Morgan Austen managed 13 kills and seven digs. Andrew Boczyk gained six kills, four blocks and four digs as Robert Palucci earned 13 digs and Luke Barnell added seven digs.
As they have all season, Oswego’s dynamic duo of Zach Gillard and Josh Carney proved unstoppable, as Gillard put away 42 kills, with passes fed from Carney as he amassed 56 assists. Drazen Schrecengoest finished with 10 kills and four digs as the Bucs advanced to face Baldwinsville in the sectional final, while C-NS finished with a record of 13-7.
