Another autumn meant another shot at glory for the Baldwinsville girls volleyball team.
Long the dominant Section III Class AA program, the Bees have also earned a pair of state championships, though each of the last two years attempts to add to that total were thwarted by Section II champion Shenendehowa in the regional round.
B’ville’s first match of the season came last Tuesday night, when it hosted West Genesee, off to a 2-0 start. With many new starters in its lineup, the Bees were put to a big test, but passed it and still swept the Wildcats in three sets.
Aided by strong defense that kept points alive, WG was close to winning each of the first two sets. Just when they were needed, though, B’ville earned the key points to take those sets by 25-23 and 25-22 margins before closing it out, 25-17, in the third set.
B’ville prevailed thanks to veterans like Michelle Voyer, who had 13 kills and 13 digs, and Maddie Stone, who picked up 33 assists. Katie Welcher added nine kills and Kiannah Titus eight kills as Summer McClingtic had nine digs and Skyler Parrow-Strong contributed seven digs.
On WG’s side, Jaylin Mallore finished with 19 digs, while Sasha Mekker, in the process of earning 27 assists, got 10 digs. Audrey Dennis added nine digs and Rachel Hillery eight digs to go with 12 kills. Carolyn King had five kills and five digs as Greta Jasinski matched that five-dig total.
Still at home Thursday night, B’ville routed Corcoran 25-7, 25-15, 25-13 as the Bees unleashed 21 aces from eight different players. Kristen Liu led with five aces, while Welcher had four aces to go with a team-best six kills. Abby Monica and Sophia Cronk had four kills apiece. Stone notched 21 assists, four kills and three aces.
To cap off this busy opening week, the Bees hosted its annual Fall Fling Tournament, which brought 24 teams to the Baker High School gym divided into four divisions – Gold, Silver, Bronze and Platinum.
As part of the Gold division, B’ville split two sets with Jamesville-DeWitt, but swept Buffalo City Honors and Horseheads. In the division quarterfinals, the Bees topped Webster Schroeder 28-26, 25-17, but lost the semifinal to Walter Panas 25-22, 25-21 as Panas dropped the title match to Penfield.
In the other divisions, J-D beat Burnt Hills/Ballston Lake 27-25, 25-16 for the Silver division title, while Fairport got a 25-14, 25-23 sweep over Cicero-North Syracuse in the Bronze division final. South Glens Falls beat Galway to take top honors in the Diamond division.
Coming off a five-set home win over Fayetteville-Manlius on Sept. 9, the Baldwinsville boys volleyball team would have to meet those same Hornets less than week later, and had to make quite the comeback to get the exact same result.
This time around, the match was on F-M’s home court, and the Hornets pounded through the opening set 25-13, only to have B’ville get even, 25-18, in the second set, giving it a cushion after it lost the third set 25-19.
What followed was pure excitement in the fourth and fifth sets. Both times, F-M got within range of a victory, and both times B’ville saved themselves, extending the fourth set until it won 27-25, and then doing the same in the final set until it put away the match point in a 26-24 decision.
Through it all, Riley Shanon had 21 kills, Tyler Aiello 14 kills and Nate Johns nine kills, with Ryan Carson getting seven kills and five blocks, and Max Thurston contributing six kills.
On the Bees’ back line, David Cerqua was quite active, earning 27 digs as David Abraham earned 37 assists, plus five digs of his own to match Dan Cerqua. F-M, in defeat, had Chris Perry get 48 assists, often passing it to Jacob Rhea, who had 24 kills with help from Ryan Boshart (12 kills) and Cade Collum (10 kills).
In between the two F-M battles, B’ville had an easier time of it in last Monday’s match against Jamesville-DeWitt, claiming the first two sets by 25-17 margins before completing a sweep of the Red Rams 25-14 in the third set.
Abraham put together 25 assists, with Shanon pacing a balanced front line by earning seven kills. Johns and Aiello got five kills apiece, while Carson had four kills. David Cerqua earned four aces to go with three digs.
