Having not lost for more than a month, the Chittenango girls volleyball team would find out a lot about itself in the matches that followed its tough four-set defeat to Onondaga High School League leader Tully on Jan. 9.
And none of them was more important than the rematch with Tully six days later, on the Bears’ home floor. This time around, Chittenango earned all of the key points it could not in that first encounter, and put away the Black Knights in a three-set sweep.
Fired up from the opening serve, Chittenango dominated the first set, bashing Tully 25-14. And even when the next two sets proved closer, the Bears fended off all of the Black Knights’ charges, earning the second set 25-21 and winning the third set 25-23 to close it out.
A big key to the Bears’ success was seeing Emily Wood save points through her 26 digs, to go with five kills and three aces. Providing further depth to the back line, Allie Cerio had 10 assists, six digs and three kills, while Hannah Bailey earned seven assists and three digs.
Up front, Corrin Stelakis again led the way, earning 10 kills, while Allie Santorelli had four blocks and two kills. Tully, in defeat, got nine kills from Lydia Guy and eight kills from Maureen Whitney, with Grace Chafee getting 14 assists (not even half her total from the first meeting) and Hannah Leva adding 13 assists.
Before getting even with Tully, the Bears met Manlius-Pebble Hill last Monday night, and with steady, consistent play, prevailed in three sets, beating the Trojans 25-18 in each of the first two sets, and then closing it out 25-19 in the third.
Cerio had 17 assists, her passes often going to Stelakis, who picked up 10 kills, and Wood, who had six kills, four aces and six digs. Leslie Choi added four kills as Lauren Malloy picked up seven digs.
A 25-18, 25-19, 25-12 sweep of Fabius-Pompey followed on Wednesday night, with the Bears seeing Cerio (12 assists) and Bailey (eight assists) pass it to Stelakis, who led with nine kills. Young had five digs as Wood earned five kills, four digs and three aces, and Mackenzie Stevens got four kills.
On back-to-back nights, the Chittenango boys volleyball team faced wildly varying tests, and nearly didn’t make it out of the second one unblemished as it looked ahead to Tuesday night’s showdown with Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.
Hosting Westmoreland last Wednesday night, the Bears trailed by two sets, rallied to pull even, and then were two points from defeat before getting the points it needed at the end to subdue the Bulldogs in a five-set classic.
A close first set saw Westmoreland prevail 25-20, and things looked even better for the visitors when it also rallied to win the second set 26-24, made more painful for Chittenango since it led, 24-21, and had three set points that the Bulldogs turned back before pulling it out.
Somehow, the Bears regrouped and, in the third set, led most of the way to prevail 25-21. in the fourth set, Westmoreland was up 19-18, closing in on victory, but Chittenango promptly scored the last seven points of the set to win, 25-19, and even it up at two sets apiece.
And that was just the prelude to a tense final set. Again, the Bears went to the brink, but with the score 25-25, it gained back the serve on a hitting error, and another long hit allowed Chittenango to win the set 27-25 and complete its tough comeback.
Tyler Howard led the Bears with 37 assists, nine kills and six aces. Brad Markowski had 13 kills, with Zane Garvey adding 10 kills, seven digs and three aces. Connor Martin and Rob Howard each had eight kills as Seamus St. Ledger had six digs, five kills, four assists and two blocks. Kyle Brazell contributed seven digs.
A night earlier, Chittenango had far less trouble with Little Falls, sweeping the Mounties 25-15, 25-6, 25-10. In what amounted to a tune-up for Westmoreland, Markowski put away 10 kills, his points set up by Howard, who had 20 assists. Martin contributed six kills.
