After going head-to-head on Sept. 10, the Jamesville-DeWitt and Fayetteville-Manlius volleyball teams headed off on separate paths against separate foes, hoping for some kind of success – and both of them would endure five-set battles, with varying results.
In J-D’s case, that meant going from a five-set win over the Hornets to a big five-set win over Oswego last Tuesday night in the first meeting between the two sides since the Buccaneers beat the Red Rams in last November’s Section III Class A final.
A close first set went 25-23 in J-D’s favor, and the momentum carried over to a 25-18 win in the second set. Up 2-0, the Rams saw that lead vanish when Oswego won the next two sets 25-19 and 25-20.
But J-D saved its best work for the final set, bashing the Bucs 25-13 as Eva Dougherty capped a night that included a career-best 58 assists, plus 11 digs. Kathryn Arendt finished with 18 digs.
Alexandria Payne and Alex Frank both finished with 18 kills and 18 digs, with Lexie Gambacarto adding 11 kills and six digs. Amy Shen had nine kills and three digs as Julia Cavanaugh had five kills. Oswego saw Clara Culeton earn 23 kills and Adeline Benjamin 11 kills in front of Laurin Furlong, who produced 40 assists.
Further proof of J-D’s quality was the way it played in Saturday’s Baldwinsville Fall Fling Tournament. In pool play, the Red Rams managed to split two sets with the host Bees while sweeping Buffalo City Honors and Horseheads.
Moving to the Silver Division semifinals at B’ville, the Rams swept Pittsford Sutherland 25-21, 25-18 in that round and moved on to the final, where it prevailed, 27-25, 25-16, over Section II power Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake.
F-M, meanwhile, had its own five-set battle with West Genesee Thursday night. A close first set went 26-24 in the Wildcats’ favor and, after rolling through the second set 25-13, the Hornets were two points from getting swept.
Instead of that, though, F-M pulled out the set 27-25 and, with newfound momentum, tore through a 25-9 fourth set that evened the match. However, WG found its form again in the final set and, by a 25-19 margin, pulled it out.
Saara Vahtola earned 15 kills, six aces and 11 digs, with Paige Hulbert adding 14 kills and seven digs in front of Erianna Madill, who earned 36 assists. Sara Arthur had five kills, three aces, three blocks and three digs. WG was led by Rachel Hillery (15 kills, nine digs) and Audrey Dennis (12 kills, 11 digs) as Sasha Mekker produced 35 assists.
Before that, F-M swept Henninger on Tuesday, taking the first set 25-7 before taking the next two sets by 25-16 and 25-20 margins. Vahtola and Jessica Burhle both picked up six kills, with Lingel Emmi adding five kills and four digs. Ellen Burhle and Alexandra Burhle each had three kills, while Madill managed 21 assists, helped by Diana DeVito, who had eight assists.
Also part of the B’ville Fall Fling, F-M played in the Bronze Division, going 2-4 in sets as it split with Homer and Webster Schroeder, but got swept by Walter Panas. Still, the Hornets beat LaFayette 25-22, 25-23 in the tournament quarterfinal and went to three sets in a 25-14, 10-25, 15-12 defeat to Cicero-North Syracuse.
Bishop Grimes would emerge victorious from a close, hard-fought match with Bishop Ludden last Tuesday night, the Cobras prevailing in fourth sets.
Each of the sets was close, with Grimes winning the opener 25-23 but Ludden pulling out the second set 26-24. Things stayed close in the third set, but Grimes prevailed, 25-21, and would also win the fourth set 25-22 to close it out.
The Cobras saw Raquel McDonald earn 14 kills, Bri Squier add 11 kills and Samantha Houck pick up 20 assists. Maria Canzano earned seven digs as, for Ludden, Aurora DeShaies managed nine kills, Natalie Fagan served up nine aces to go with three kills and three assists and Meghan Wilkinson gained 20 digs.
Grimes went to 3-1 on the season Thursday by handling Syracuse Academy of Science 25-9, 25-14, 25-16. Sarah Snavlin had nine of the Cobras’ 26 aces, with Houck notching seven aces to go with nine assists. Squier had five kills and three aces as McDonald and Mancuso both earned three kills and two aces.
Moving to boys volleyball, F-M had a rematch with the same Baldwinsville side it pushed to five sets on Sept. 9. Again, it went the full limit, and again the Hornets were on the wrong end of it.
This time around, the match was on F-M’s home court, and it 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 the Hornets prevailed 25-19 in the third set.
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 itself, 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.
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). Boshart also got eight digs as Jack Grifo earned 10 digs, matching Jack Fuller’s total of four kills. Dean Assenza had five digs.
For B’ville, 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. David Cerqua was quite active, earning 27 digs as David Abraham earned 37 assists, plus five digs of his own to match Dan Cerqua.
J-D, just two days after the loss to F-M, had to run into Baldwinsville last Monday night and lost, 25-17, 25-17, 25-14 to the Bees.
Liam Kaplan still had 10 assists for the Red Rams as Ryan Middleton got four aces, two kills and two blocks. Lucas Binder got five kills as Cameron Howe and Nick Mandelis earned two kills apiece. Abraham paced B’ville, earning 25 assists.
Having not yet won a set in three matches, J-D changed that trend Wednesday against the Syracuse City team, claiming a 25-13, 25-14, 25-15 sweep. Middleton had nine kills, with Binder contributing six kills. Kaplan set up those points and finished with 16 assists.
