What a difference a few weeks, and a bit of home-court advantage, can make.
Cazenovia’s girls volleyball team, undefeated going into last Tuesday night’s match at Westhill, twice held leads, and could not hold on either time, falling to the Warriors to take its first defeat of the 2015 season.
When they had first met Sept. 17 at Buckley Gym, Cazenovia rolled to a straight-set victory. All through that match, the Lakers kept the Warriors in catch-up mode, and the second encounter threatened to go down the same path on a couple of occasions.
A close opening set went back and forth, but the Lakers won it, 25-23. That seemed to make Westhill angry, for it pounded Cazenovia 25-13 in the second set to pull even, only to see the Lakers do much the same thing in a 25-12 third-set victory to move back in front.
But it was here that the Warriors showed how much it had improved in the three weeks since that initial encounter. Using power, poise and precision, Westhill pulled out the fourth set 25-20, and though the final set was tight, the Warriors got the points it needed in the end to win the match 25-21.
Cazenovia featured Jenna Britton, who put together 25 assists and 16 digs, and Molly Carges, who got 12 kills and three blocks, while Paige Nardella had 18 digs and six kills and Danielle Tedesco, such a force in the first Westhill-Cazenovia meeting, got seven kills and seven blocks.
Morgan Hodinger added five kills and seven digs, with Lauren Burbidge (six digs), Jess Macheda (five digs, three kills), Lauren Lyons and Katie Davis (four digs each) making defensive contributions and Lyons adding four aces.
With her 39 assists and eight digs, to go with five aces and three kills, Mackenzie Martin anchored Westhill’s effort, helped on the back line by Liz Kelly, who had 15 digs, and Montana Gedney, who earned a team-best 26 digs to go with her seven kills.
Delaney Martin not only earned 16 kills, she got 20 digs to add to the Warriors’ remarkable defensive numbers. Bridget Lougen had 13 kills, four blocks and two digs, with Melissa Newcomb adding 12 kills and 10 digs.
All that Cazenovia could do now was prove that it could bounce back from disappointment as it went on the road again Thursday night to face Marcellus. The first set was a long one, but the Lakers claimed it, 29-27, and went on to win the second set 25-18 before pulling out a 25-23 decision in the third set to avoid further work.
Tedesco roared back to her usual form, amassing 14 kills and seven blocks, with Carges contributing 10 kills. Nardella and Sarah Dickinson both managed four kills in front of Britton, who had 29 assists, nearly 10 per set, to go with five digs as Lauren Burbidge contributed four digs.
Cazenovia now headed back home for Tuesday’s match against those other Lakers from Skaneateles, before playing Institute of Technology Central on Senior Night Thursday and ending the regular season Oct. 19 at LaFayette.
