A pivotal moment in the Liverpool girls volleyball season had arrived.
When the Warriors hosted Baldwinsville last Friday night, it represented the last opportunity in the regular season to try and measure up the long-time reigning powers in the Class AA ranks.
Liverpool had pushed the Bees hard in their first head-to-head match at the Baker High School Gym on Sept. 18, and while B’ville ended up prevailing in four sets, some wondered if the Warriors had what it took to get even closer.
Perhaps that will still take place – but on this evening, there wasn’t any doubt. In three emphatic sets, B’ville took down Liverpool, improved to 11-0 on the season and announced to all that, again, it would take something quite special to knock the Bees off its long-held CNY Counties League and Section III Class AA thrones.
In top form from the outset, B’ville pulled away in the first set and won it 25-14. Then it claimed the second set by that exact same score, and while the Warriors inched a bit closer in the third set, the Bees closed out the match 25-19.
For Liverpool, Julia Flohr had 19 assists and 15 digs, but no single player had more than the six kills put up by Julia Mumpton and Amelia Bartier. Lexi McLaggan (five kills) and Karlie King (four kills) were close behind as Sam Wolf earned 13 digs.
On the Bees’ front line, Abby May put away 12 kills, adding four digs. Michelle Voyer finished with nine kills, while Riley Carlucci managed eight kills. Kiannah Titus earned five kills, plus eight digs and two blocks. Morgan Shibel had a team-best three blocks. Hannah Klaben helped them all out with her 18 assists, tacking on eight digs, two aces and two kills, while Maddie Stone managed 15 assists and four aces. Emily Pascale picked up 13 digs.
Liverpool had one last warm-up before B’ville, a 25-4, 25-19, 25-11 sweep of Henninger that took less than an hour to complete. The Warriors got 20 aces, five each from Mumpton, who also had six kills, and Flohr, who amassed 27 assists. Mikayla Brown added three aces as Abby Anderson and Amelia Bartier got five kills apiece and Samantha Wolf earned eight digs.
As for Cicero-North Syracuse, it had back-to-back matches, starting with last Wednesday’s loss to West Genesee. The Northstars never recovered from a 25-12 first-set defeat as the next three sets involved 25-20 margins, with only the third going in C-NS’s favor.
Kira Kullman put together 10 kills and two blocks, while Meghan Bocyck got six kills and seven digs. Sharlene Richards, with 12 assists, and Kayla Tutt, with seven assists, shared back-line duties as Savannah Ciciarelli earned 12 digs, Jessica Barry had three aces and Julianna Grasso got four digs.
Looking to rebound Thursday night at Fayetteville-Manlius, the Northstars were unable to do so in a 25-23, 25-18, 25-16 defeat, falling to 8-5 on the season. The close loss in the opening set seemed to affect the Northstars, who had Kullman earn five kills, Tutt five assists and Richards four assists. Ciciarelli added seven digs and four aces.
Meanwhile, in boys volleyball, Cicero-North Syracuse won again last Wednesday night, sweeping Central Square 25-9, 25-13, 25-12.
Garrett Coleman led the Northstars with 11 kills, but Josh Bigford, with nine kills, was close behind. Warren Hoke had five kills and Luke Barnell contributed four kills, with Robert Patzer earning three kills. Connor Millias recorded 30 assists and four aces. Trevor Caviness got five digs.
Like the girls, C-NS had a match with F-M 24 hours later, but managed to win, rolling through the first two sets 25-15 and 25-17 before a 25-22 defeat in the third set led to a fourth-set 25-13 romp that put away the Hornets.
Millias, along with five kills, upped his total to 41 assists, with passes going to Coleman, who had 16 kills, and Barnell, who got 11 kills. Hoke picked up eight kills and Bigford added seven kills, plus a team-best four blocks. Caviness managed nine digs, ahead of Barnell (five digs) and Hoke (four digs).
A non-league match Saturday against Horseheads took place, which C-NS won 25-8, 25-13, 25-20, which was important in that it served as Justin Kegebein’s return from an ankle injury. Kegebein finished with five kills.
Millias not only had 29 assists, he tied Coleman with a team-best eight kills as Hoke matched Kegebein’s total of five kills. Barnell, Bigford and Reed Jones had four kills apiece as Caviness produced 13 digs.
Back at full strength with Kegebein’s return to the court, C-NS was set for big matches this week as it attempts to complete regular-season sweeps against Oswego and Baldwinsville.
