Each of Chittenango’s volleyball teams roared through a busy week, with the girls side claiming three victories in a four-night span.
The girls Bears got off to a near-perfect start in last Monday’s match against Fabius-Pompey, winning the first set 25-4, and while the ensuing two sets didn’t provide the same sort of domination, Chittenango still won them 25-18 and 25-23 to complete the sweep.
Allie Cerio had a fine all-around effort, recording 12 assists, five aces and five digs. Claire Charde picked up six kills and five blocks, with Corrin Stelakis managing four kills. Ashley Young earned 10 digs as Lauren Malloy put together five aces and six digs. Allie Sentorelli had three kills.
Two nights later, at Port Byron, the Bears survived a tough opening set 27-25, and went on to yet another sweep, taking out the Panthers 25-20 in the second set and 25-10 in the third set.
Improving as the match went along, Chittenango saw Charde and Brianna Koegel both pick up six kills, with Koegel adding seven digs. Stelakis managed four kills as Cerio earned 11 assists and five digs, with Laura Kohler picking up six assists two aces and four digs. Emily Wood finished with two kills and five digs.
Meeting Cortland 24 hours later, the Bears lost the first set 25-19, but turned around to win an important second set 25-21 and ended up winning in four, claiming the next two sets by margins of 25-18 and 25-17.
Koegel was sensational on the defensive side, piling up 25 digs, with Young getting 15 digs as Cerio earned 18 assists and Kohler claimed nine assists.
Up front, the duties were nicely split, as Stelakis led with eight kills, but Koegel and Charde were close behind, getting seven kills apiece, and Wood added six kills. Jackowski had three kills and three blocks.
As this went on, Chittenango’s boys volleyball team continued its strong start, hosting Herkimer last Tuesday night and putting together a 25-16, 25-11, 25-18 sweep over the Magicians.
Nash Boyd picked up nine assists, helped on the back line by Tyler Howard, who had six assists, and Mike McIntosh, who had five digs go with four kills. Up front, Brad Markowski led with seven kills, with Connor Martin matching McIntosh’s total of four kills and Andrew Clark adding three kills.
The Bears faced Westmoreland on Thursday night, and just as the girls did with Cortland, it lost the opening set by a 25-19 margin before prevailing in four.
Each of those remaining sets were close, but Chittenango got all of the key points, winning the second and third sets by equal 25-22 margins and adding a 25-20 victory in the fourth set to finish it off.
McIntosh led with nine kills and four digs. Martin contributed eight kills as Jack Wandersee put together seven kills and four digs and Markowski had five kills.
Boyd fed all of them, finishing with 16 assists, plus two aces and three digs, as Howard augmented his five assists with five kills to match Markowski’s totals. Kyle Brazell contributed seven digs. A big match awaits the Bears this Thursday against Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.
