With two more victories in a 24-hour span during the week before the holiday break, the Chittenango girls volleyball team positioned itself right behind Tully in the tight Onondaga High School League race.
The tougher of these two matches came last Wednesday night, when the 7-1 Bears, looking for its eighth win in a row, hosted 7-1 Pulaski and fell behind early, only to gain strength as the match went on and beat the Blue Devils in four sets.
Pulaski did indeed earn a 25-21 victory in the opener. Each of the next two sets was close, too, but Chittenango gained the crucial points and won them, by margins of 25-22 and 25-23, before pulling away in the fourth set to close out the match 25-17.
Allie Cerio led the Bears’ efforts, picking up 20 assists and 12 digs, plus three aces and two kills, while Hannah Bailey gained nine assists and six digs. Leslie Choi had five kills and Lauren Malloy added 16 digs, to go with four aces. Emily Wood had 13 digs and Ashley Young put up nine digs as, for Pulaski, Megan Jennings had 13 kills and Ashley Monroe managed 19 assists.
A night earlier, the Bears went to Altmar-Parish-Williamstown last Tuesday night and had control throughout the match, needing just three sets to subdue the Rebels 25-18, 25-15, 25-17.
Splitting Chittenango’s back-line duties, Cerio picked up 14 assists and Bailey recorded 12 assists, with Cerio also contributing a team-best six aces. Wood produced five aces to go with her four kills, while Corrin Stelakis had a team-best seven kills. Choi and Angel Arno added four kills apiece, with Allie Santorelli also producing three kills.
But while Chittenango’s volleyball players continued to soar, the basketball sides continued to struggle, as evidenced by the girls hosting Oneida last Tuesday and playing superb defense, only to fall to the Indians 27-17.
The Bears held Oneida to two points in the second quarter and four points in the fourth quarter. However, it didn’t take full advantage, getting just four total points in those periods.
Thus, the Indians’ 12-7 push through the third period proved decisive as Trisha Whaley and Kaitlyn Boyer, with seven points apiece, accounted for most of Chittenango’s production. Jordan Newton led Oneida with nine points.
A night later, Chittenango’s boys basketball team took a 65-39 loss to East Syracuse-Minoa, unable to recover from a four-point first quarter as the Spartans stretched out the margin to 57-25 by the end of the third period before easing up.
Matt Milliman still finished with 15 points, with Eli Kim adding nine points. Nate Falkenburg had seven points And Marcus Hale-Brown contributed six points as, for ESM, Brandon Breen (22 points) and Jah-Meer McDuffie (16 points) led the way.