Having not even reached the finals of the Gold division of its own Fall Fling Tournament, the Baldwinsville girls volleyball team discovered what it still needed to work on as the regular season went along.
By far, the most important match of the young season would take place Thursday night as the Bees visited Liverpool, the first encounter between the two since B’ville swept last November’s Section III Class AA final.
Each side was undefeated, and the fired-up Warriors would make some inroads, only to get pushed back by the Bees as its combination of great serves, touch and defense proved too much for Liverpool in another three-set sweep.
Having won the opening set 25-12, the Bees fell behind 5-0 in the second set, but then took over and rolled to a 25-17 victory. It was even more extreme in the third set, with a 4-0 deficit turned around in a hurt and B’ville closing it out by a 25-13 margin.
Maddie Stone earned 28 assists, five digs and five kills, and fed a well-balanced front line. Kiannah Titus and Michelle Voyer each had eight kills, also combining for 14 digs to help on the defensive side.
Sophia Cronk stepped up with six kills, while Katie Welcher matched Stone’s five-kill output. Titus and Rachel Foertch had three aces apiece as Foertch and Rachel McClingtic notched five digs apiece. Skyler Parrow-Strong and Kristen Liu got two kills apiece as Parrow-Strong also managed two assists and four digs.
Matches helped, too, even if the results were one-sided, such as last Tuesday’s 25-5, 25-6, 25-7 sweep of Henninger where Welcher had eight kills and six aces, with Rileigh Kimball adding five kills and two aces. Stone recorded 16 assists as Sophia Cali managed five digs and three aces,
Meanwhile, the Baldwinsville boys volleyball team continued to march toward its big showdown Tuesday night with Cicero-North Syracuse, the first time the two were together since the Northstars won last year’s sectional Division I final.
In last Monday’s 25-8, 25-9, 25-17 sweep of Jamesville-DeWitt, David Abraham put up 15 assists and Dan Cerqua seven assists, two kills and two aces,, with David Cerqua contributing 11 digs and four aces.
Moving to the front line, Tyler Aiello gathered up 11 kills and two blocks, while Riley Shanon had eight kills. Nate Johns and Cole Zsemyle earned four kills apiece. J-D got 10 kills from Liam Kaplan and six aces from Lucas Binder.
B’ville then swept Syracuse 25-8, 25-12, 25-15 on Wednesday night. Aiello and Shanon both had eight kills, just ahead of Johns and Max Thurston, who got six kills apiece. Ryan Carson earned five kills as Austin Catalano and Ryan Shirk had four kills apiece. Dan Cerqua earned 21 assists, with Abraham earning 16 assists.
