Off for nearly a week, the Chittenango girls volleyball team nearly squandered its opportunity to climb back to the .500 mark.
The Bears, who had last Monday’s match at Altmar-Parish-Williamstown postponed, had a big early lead on Faith Heritage Thursday night, only to get pushed to five sets before finally putting away the Saints.
This was the first-ever meeting between Chittenango and Faith, and they proceeded to play a close, hard-fought opening set that featured 10 lead changes after early runs from both sides.
But the Bears pulled it out, 26-24, the first time in four matches this season that it won the opening set. Keeping that momentum, Chittenango raced to an 18-9 lead in the second set and withstood the Saints’ late charge to prevail, 25-18, and go up 2-0 in sets.
Faith was far from done, though. In the third set, the Saints raced out to a 5-1 lead, and though the Bears played on even terms from there, it still could not catch up, taking a defeat by a 25-19 margin.
During the first half of the fourth set, neither side could break out, but that changed when Faith, at 12-12, registered seven consecutive points to burst into the lead, and Chittenango did not have a comparable answer as the Saints won, 25-20, and pulled even.
Forced into a fifth set, Chittenango kept cool, and then dominated the finale, jumping on Faith 12-4 and registering another 6-0 run later in the set to secure a 25-14 victory, the most lopsided set of the match.
Allie Cerio, with 16 assists, and Laura Kohler, with nine assists, shared the Bears’ back-line duties. Kohler added three aces as Ashley Young, with 22 digs, and Lauren Malloy, with 10 digs, excelled on the defensive side.
Meanwhile, Brianna Koegel picked up 16 digs, but also put away seven kills and three aces. Ashley Jackowski and Corrin Stelakis matched Koegel’s total of seven kills, while Claire Charde had five blocks and six digs. For the Saints, Emily Cooper, with 13 kills and 11 digs, and Addy Neider, with 14 assists, five kills and six digs, led the way.
In a busy week before the holiday break, the Bears take on East Syracuse-Minoa Tuesday, followed by a Friday match against Manlius-Pebble Hill.
