A busy sports Saturday on the Baldwinsville school campus included the girls volleyball Bees hosting its annual Fall Swing Tournament at the Baker High School gymnasium complex.
In all, 24 teams took part, placed into four divisions – Gold, Silver, Bronze and Diamond. B’ville found itself in the Silver division, and started fast, sweeping both sets against Oswego (25-9, 25-10) and Thomas Edison (25-10, 25-8) to go to the top of the standings.
From there, though, it was more of a struggle. Connetquot took two of three sets from the Bees, including a 25-8 romp, and a 25-17 defeat to Pittsford Sutherland made things more difficult.
But the semifinal brought a long-awaited rematch with the Shenendehowa side that stunned B’ville in last year’s AA regional final. On its home court, the Bees got a bit of payback, winning the first set 25-12 and dropping the second set 29-27, but sweeping to a 15-0 win in the final set.
All of this left the Bees a bit spent before the Silver division final against Owego, from Section IV, who pulled out a close first set 25-23, and then, after B’ville got even, 25-21, Owego took the third set 15-9 and the division crown.
Elsewhere, Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake beat Pittsford Sutherland in the Gold division final, Liverpool topped Cicero-North Syracuse 25-20, 25-18 in the Bronze Division final and Fayetteville-Manlius claimed a three-set thriller with South Glens Falls in the Diamond division final.
B’ville entered the Fall Swing Tournament steeled by the tough challenges it had gone through against West Genesee and Liverpool earlier in the month, but still the team to beat among Section III Class AA sides.
In last Monday’s match at Corcoran, B’ville swept the Cougars 25-11, 25-10, 25-8, and while the top players mostly rested, others go to shine.
Hannah DeFazio set the tone with four aces, to go with three kills, as Abby Monica put together 13 kills, three blocks and 11 digs. Rachel Foertch added seven kills and nine digs. Riley Carlucci got four kills and three digs, with Maddie Stone feeding them thanks to her 27 assists and seven digs. Skyle Parrow-Strong also had seven digs.
Visiting Nottingham Wednesday night, it was much the same, B’ville routing the Bulldogs 25-12, 25-5, 25-10. Hannah Klaben returned to deliver 17 assists and six aces, plus three digs.
Abby May earned a team-best five kills and five digs, with Monica adding three kills and six digs. Emily Pascale managed seven digs in front of Parrow-Strong, who earned four aces. Melissa Voyer and Hannah Titus each got four kills as Morgan Shibel added three kills.
For the Baldwinsville boys volleyball team, the Sept. 18 match against Fayetteville-Manlius, where it squandered a 2-0 lead in sets and lost in five, provided quite the jolt.
Angered by this, the Bees took it out on the combined Syracuse city side in last Monday night’s 25-14, 25-12, 25-14 sweep. Dan Shorney, with 20 assists, and David Abraham, with 13 assists, made sure that nearly half of B’ville’s points featured some form of help.
Up front, 10 different players earned kills, with Max Thurston’s 10 kills setting the pace. Ryan Gell got seven kills, while Cole Patnode finished with five kills. Nick Walker, Alex Brummer and Riley Shanon each had three kills, with Ryan Shirk joining Walker and Brummer in getting three aces.
That was the Bees’ lone match of the week, setting up Tuesday’s big trip to Cicero-North Syracuse, immediately followed by Thursday’s visit from Oswego.
