Now the area’s high school volleyball teams with fall schedules are fully underway, and it included a pair of five-set classics last weekend, each of them involving teams from Fayetteville-Manlius – and each of them ending up as defeats for the Hornets.
For girls volleyball, F-M battled Jamesville-DeWitt in a match Saturday afternoon where the Red Rams led 2-0 in sets and nearly blew it before recovering just in time to prevail in five.
J-D won both of the first two sets by 25-19 margins. And it got within two points of a sweep before F-M managed to pull out the third set 26-24, going on to win the fourth set 25-20. The final set was close, too, but the Rams, with its own 25-20 decision, finally put it away.
Splitting back-line duties, Madeline Ferris had 21 assists and Eva Dougherty 18 assists for J-D, while Alex Frank dazzled with 17 kills and 22 digs. Alexandria Payne managed 15 kills and 17 digs as Julia Cavanaugh added seven kills and three blocks. Amy Shen had five blocks, six digs and three kills.
F-M spread its front-line production around, Saara Vahtola earning 13 kills and six digs. Sara Arthur had seven kills and four aces, while Paige Hulbert and Alexandra Burhle each had five kills. Erianna Madill earned 31 assists, adding three kills.
A night earlier, in the boys match last Friday night between F-M and Baldwinsville, the Hornets led early, squandered that lead and rallied to tie it, though it eventually fell in five sets to the Bees,
After a 25-21 victory in the opening set, the Hornets nearly won the second set, too, but when B’ville pulled that out 25-23, the momentum carried over into a 25-21 Bees victory in the third set. F-M did prolong it by winning the fourth set 25-18, but B’ville closed strong, winning the final set by a big 25-12 margin.
F-M’s Chris Perry amassed 43 assists, his passes often going to Cade Collum, who had 23 kills, and Jacob Rhea, who earned 10 kills. Jack Fuller (seven kills) and Ryan Boshart (six kills) were close behind.
For B’ville, Tyler Aiello, with 13 kills, and Riley Shanon, with 12 kills, paced the front line. Ryan Carson added seven kills in front of David Abraham, who put together 35 assists and four aces, and David Cerqua, who got 11 digs and four aces.
Angry at this defeat, F-M took it out against J-D on Saturday in a 25-12, 25-22, 25-14 sweep. Only the second set proved close as Collum managed 13 kills, with Rhea adding eight kills and Boshart six kills. Perry notched 29 assists as, for J-D, Liam Kaplan had 12 assists and Lucas Binder got eight kills and four blocks.
Before all this, F-M won its season opener, getting through a pair of close sets with Central Square, but ultimately sweeping the Redhawks 25-22, 25-23, 25-10.
Perry, with his 26 assists, set up a deep Hornets front line. Rhea had nine kills and four blocks, while Cade Collum had seven kills. Boshart and Jack Griffo got six kills apiece as Fuller got four kills and Dean Assenza picked up three digs.
On that same night, J-D lost in three sets to Cicero-North Syracuse 25-7, 25-12, 25-19. The Red Rams got eight kills from Binder and five kills from Ryan Middleton as Kaplan gained 13 assists.
The J-D girls got off to a perfect start in its Sept. 2 match against Westhill, winning the first set 25-13. But the Red Rams could not sustain that standard as the Warriors claimed the second set 25-15 and the third and fourth sets in their own 25-13 romps.
Frank had nine kills and nine digs, with Payne adding seven kills and seven digs. Cavanaugh got five kills and five blocks as Lexie Gambacorto had four kills, three aces and five digs. Dougherty (11 assists), Ferris (eight assists) and Kathryn Arendt (10 digs) worked on the back line.
Resuming on Wednesday night at Fulton, J-D again went to four sets – but won this time. It won the opening set 25-20 and the second set 25-18, returning to claim the fourth set by that same margin after the Red Raiders had its own 25-20 win in the third set to prolong it.
Ferris amassed 25 assists and Dougherty got 13 assists as Payne pulled off a double-double of 14 kills and 12 digs. Frank put together nine kills and nine digs, with Gambacorto earning nine kills and five digs. Arendt had seven kills as Cavanaugh again managed five kills and Amy Shen added four kills, two aces, two blocks and two digs.
Then J-D got back to the win column Friday, sweeping LaFayette 25-22, 25-16, 25-14. On her way to 25 assists, Dougherty fed it to Payne, who had nine kills and six digs, and Frank, who earned seven kills and seven digs. Gambacorto added five kills and five aces as Cavanaugh contributed four kills.
While that was going on, F-M fell in three sets to Cicero-North Syracuse, staying close in 25-23 and 27-25 decisions in the first two sets before dropping the third set 25-19. Hulbert had 11 kills, with Vahtola and Burhle getting five kills apiece. Madill had 22 assists and Vahtola earned 10 digs.
Bishop Grimes engaged in a thrilling season opener last Tuesday night against Altmar-Parish-Williamstown. The Cobras, after losing the first set 25-14, won the next two sets 25-17 and 25-20, only to have the Rebels claim the fourth set 25-19.
In a back-and-forth final set, both teams got chances, but Grimes pulled it out, 26-24, to claim the match, its effort anchored by Samantha Houck, who earned 26 assists and also got seven aces.
Up front, Raquel McDonald had 12 kills, part of a well-balanced line where Kendall Mancuso put together 10 kills, seven digs and five aces. Bri Squier added nine kills, four digs and three aces.
With little time to recover, the Cobras hosted Skaneateles on Thursday night, and lost the first set 25-16, only to get even with a 25-19 win in the second set. That didn’t last, though, as the Lakers won the next two sets by 25-17 and 25-20 margins.
Squier still had eight kills and 12 digs. McDonald added three kills in front of Houck, who had nine assists and seven digs. Mancuso also had seven digs as Jessica Patalino (seven kills, five aces), Karah Blair (nine assists, five aces) and Emma Goodell (nine digs) led Skaneateles.
