One more week of strong play could push the Chittenango girls volleyball team to the top of the Onondaga High School League standings – unless the weather got in the way.
It started last Monday night, when the Bears visited Cortland and, overcoming a shaky start, proceeded to defeat the Purple Tigers in four sets.
Cortland took the first set 25-18, but could not follow up that early success. Chittenango prevailed, 25-20, in the second set, and then pulled away to win the third set 25-15 and then, in the fourth set, remained consistent and in top form, closing out the match by a 25-19 margin.
Corrin Stelakis put away 21 kills, with passes coming from Allie Cerio, who finished with 23 assists and 12 digs. Leslie Choi had seven kills, while Emily Wood had six kills, five aces and 14 digs, and Allie Santorelli contributed five kills.
Also helping on the defensive side, Ashley Young posted 13 digs and Hannah Bailey managed eight digs to go with her six assists, and Mackenzie Stevens got five digs. Cortland featured Danielle Lynch, (25 assists, 16 digs), Ali Bustamante (10 kills), Lyuda Levitskaya (nine kills, 13 digs) and Kristin Bush, who earned 24 digs.
Only the snow seemed capable of stopping the Bears, who saw its showdown with first-place Tully snowed out on Wednesday, one of several Chittenango competitions (including boys and girls basketball against East Syracuse-Minoa) that the first snowstorm of the season nixed.
But the boys basketball Bears did play on Friday night, falling to Marcellus 66-53. They were tied, 11-11, when the Mustangs inched out in front during the second quarter and then used a 21-11 third-quarter surge to establish most of its final margin.
Joe Murray led Chittenango with 13 points, while Matt Milliman gained 11 points. Eli Kim and Marcus Hale-Brown each got eight points and Nathan Falkenburg added six points. Mike Melnyczuk paced Marcellus with 21 points, including four 3-pointers.
Meanwhile, Chittenango’s girls lost, 49-27, to Marcellus, unable to recover from falling behind 14-4 in the opening period, despite 11 points from Megan Pierce. Erica Balman paced the Mustangs’ well-balanced attack and led all individuals with 14 points.
In stark contrast to the basketball struggles, the volleyball Bears just kept on rolling, making it six wins in a row Saturday with a 25-16, 25-12, 25-11 sweep over Cato-Meridian.
Chittenango would look for more victories in back-to-back matches against Altmar-Parish-Williamstown and Pulaski on Tuesday and Wednesday before hitting the holiday break.