From Cicero-North Syracuse on the boys side to Liverpool on the girls side, area volleyball teams had a chance to prevent Baldwinsville from pulling off a sweep of Wednesday night’s Section III championship matches at the C-NS gym – but neither would succeed.

A few crucial points would doom the boys Northstars in its Division I final, a three-set defeat, while in the Class AA girls sectional final the Warriors paid the price for a small amount of earlier success against the Bees, who swept its way to a seventh straight sectional title.

With an all-new starting lineup, the C-NS boys had enjoyed vast improvement from September onward, culminating in its Division I semifinal win over Liverpool.

Now it took on a B’ville team that had swept through the CNY Counties League, including two regular-season wins over the Northstars, but had not played for two weeks due to the fact that just three teams qualified for the Division I playoffs.

Sensing that rust, and buoyed by the home crowd, C-NS started fast and led most of the first set, its lead growing as large as seven points, 14-7, before the Bees began to find its focus and, slowly, began to catch up.

At 22-22, B’ville pulled even. Then the two sides traded points, both of them squandering set points. Finally, at 25-25, the Bees had the serve, and Bees senior Pat Dubiel pulled off an ace. Seconds later, Dubiel’s kill clinched the set by a 27-25 margin.

Tight as that was, the second set proved even tighter, with 13 ties and a constant exchange of points. Still, the Bees grabbed a 24-20 lead, only to have C-NS rise up and save four straight setse points, and then save another one trailing 25-24, before B’ville gained back the serve and, again, prevailed in the set 27-25.

That seemed to break C-NS’s spirits, for in the third set B’ville never trailed, putting together all the pieces of its all-around game – power, good serves and defense – and, more importantly, keeping kill shots inside the line as it clinched the match with a 25-16 victory.

Connor Millias finished with 24 assists, while libero Trevor Caviness, called up from the JV ranks late in the season, produced 11 digs and was singled out by B’ville head coach Dan Hyland for his work throughout the match.

Luke Barnell had nine kills and nine digs as Connor Doren added seven kills and four blocks. Garrett Coleman earned four kills. Corey Toscano led B’ville with 14 kills, with Dubiel often making the feeds through his 30 assists and adding six blocks and four digs. Ryan Gell and Dalton Mahan had five kills apiece.

Now it was the Liverpool girls’ turn to seek a sectional championship, and it had some confidence in facing B’ville because, in their last meeting Oct. 7, it earned a set from the Bees, a rare feat.

But B’ville still won that match in four sets, and didn’t forget that rare lapse – something that the Warriors would immediately realize.

After giving up the opening point of the opening set, the Bees never trailed again, methodically pulling away in that first set despite plenty of spectacular saves from Liverpool’s defenders to prevail by a 25-16 margin.

Much like the opener, the second set saw the Bees control matters, getting a 12-6 margin before Smith’s serves created a decisive 6-0 push and led to a 25-13 victory. The third set included a 15-2 opening spurt by B’ville that translated into a 25-12 margin to close out yet another sectional title.