A winter’s worth of work now boiled down to how girls volleyball teams from East Syracuse Minoa, Christian Brothers Academy and Manlius-Pebble Hill would fare in their respective Section III playoffs.
Despite a terrific regular season, ESM only had the no. 6 seed in an 11-team Class A bracket, meaning it had to go through an opening-round game last Tuesday night, which it handled – though not without some stress.
No. 11 seed Rome Free Academy pushed in the first and third sets, but the Spartans still got a 25-22, 25-16, 25-21 sweep over the Black Knights, with Isabella Talarico earning 21 assists as Sophia Zacharek produced a team-best six kills.
Claire Maring had five aces and MaryKate Deeb four aces, with Julianna Cacace adding four kills. Katheryn Mangovski and Gillianne McCarthy had three kills apiece as Mangovski tacked on five digs.
In Friday night’s Class A quarterfinal, ESM, with a 13-6 record, visited no. 3 seed Whitesboro, who had a first-round bye. Just two weeks earlier, on Jan. 22, the Spartans had lost to the Warriors in three sets, and hoped that it could turn things around.
But it didn’t happen. Whitesboro roared through the first set 25-12, and though ESM was closer in the ensuing two sets, the Warriors claimed those, too, by margins of 25-19 and 25-22 to advance to the semifinals against no. 2 seed Chittenango.
Talarico still had 11 assists, with Mangovski earning four kills and eight digs. Cacace matched Talarico’s total of three kills as Zacharek and Aubrey Williams got two kills apiece. For the Warriors, Meghan Herrmann gathered up 32 assist, often passing it to Christina Borza (13 kills), Alexiz Webster (nine kills) or Claire Parisi (seven kills) as Paige Porta had 12 digs and Julia Bora 10 digs.
CBA, part of the seven-team Class B bracket, was the no. 5 seed, visiting no. 4 seed Holland Patent Thursday night to see who would get top seed Canastota in the semifinals. Several times, the Brothers were pushed to the brink, and fought back from it, before finally getting subdued by the Golden Knights in five sets.
Having rolled to a 25-15 win in the first set, HP then won the second set 25-22 and, in the third set, moved within two points of a sweep. Here, though, CBA made a stand and, by a 28-26 margin, stretched it to a fourth set, where again the Brothers were down to its last point and, again, came back to win it 28-26.
Only in the final set did CBA run out of magic as the Golden Knights closed it out, 25-15. Still, Sydney Congel had 12 kills, while Alexandra Fess earned eight kills, six aces and 12 digs.
Also for the Brothers, Liz Adams gained 23 assists and Morgan Riley earned 24 digs as Adrianna Fess had 11 digs. Danielle Arcuri paced HP with 17 kills and 15 digs, with Maryssa Dolan (17 digs), Victoria Lukasevich (15 assists) and Ariana Moorhead (13 assists) helping out. CBA finished its season with a 9-9 record.
That same night, MPH, as the no. 6 seed in an eight-team Class D field, challenged no. 3 seed Cincinnatus in the opening round, and could not get out of it, falling to the Lions 25-11, 25-19, 25-19 as the Trojans’ season concluded with a 9-11 mark.
