What a difference a few weeks, and a bit of home-court advantage, can make.
Westhill’s girls volleyball team, whose only blemish this season was a straight-set loss at Cazenovia on Sept. 17, had a far different outcome when it hosted the Lakers Tuesday night, making two different comebacks to prevail in five sets and hand Cazenovia its first defeat of the season.
All through that first match at Buckley Gym, Westhill found itself 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 Warriors lost 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 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.
With her 39 assists and eight digs, to go with five aces and three kills, Mackenzie Martin anchored the 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. Leah Diefendorf contributed eight digs.
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.
