No matter who else it beat, the Baldwinsville boys volleyball team knew that the real measure of its quality would come against the side that kept them from the Section III Division I championship a year ago.
Cicero-North Syracuse arrived at the Baker High School gym last Tuesday night for the first match between the Bees and Northstars since the 2015 sectional final. As it turned out, B’ville would take good and bad things out of its three-set defeat.
The good part came with the way each of the sets started. The Bees led most of the opening set and, when it trailed 22-19, came back to pull even. It did much the same thing in a second set that featured 10 ties and B’ville scoring two straight points to tie it, 20-20.
But that led to the bad part – an inability to get the points that really mattered, plus serves that flew long at inopportune times to thwart possible scoring runs.
Pushed hard, C-NS scored the last three points of the first set and the final five points of the second set to claim them by 25-22 and 25-20 margins before closing the third set on a 10-3 run to break out of another tie and close it out, 25-18.
David Abraham still finished with 24 assists as David Cerqua displayed dazzling defensive skills, earning 22 digs as Dan Cerqua got five digs. Tyler Aiello paced the Bees’ front line with nine kills, while Nate Johns had five kills and Ryan Carson picked up four kills.
C-NS got 16 kills from Josh Bigford and 10 kills from Trevor Caviness, with Justin Kegebein adding eight kills and Robert Patzer five kills, plus six digs. Connor Millias fed all of them with 33 assists, matching Patzer’s totals of five kills and six digs.
Meanwhile, the B’ville girls volleyball team continued to sweep anything put in its path, as far as CNY Counties League challengers went. During the Bees’ 25-11, 25-5, 25-17 rout over Fayetteville-Manlius last Monday night, Maddie Stone managed 25 assists, plus three kills.
Up front, Kiannah Titus hurt the Hornets with eight kills and two blocks, plus three digs, while Katie Welcher got seven kills. Michelle Voyer added five kills and three aces as Abby Monica (three kills), and Skyler Parrow-Strong (three aces) helped out.
B’ville returned home Wednesday night to have its own match against C-NS, but this was far different than the boys encounter, the Bees hammering the Northstars 25-9 in the first set and grabbing the second set 25-19 before pulling out a 25-23 third set to complete yet another sweep.
Voyer earned 10 kills, adding nine digs and a team-best three aces. Titus had eight kills and seven digs as Welcher earned six kills. Stone, aside from her 29 assists, contributed six digs, three kills and two aces, with Rachel Foertch earning 12 digs, Parrow-Strong getting 10 digs and Summer McGlintic earning five digs.
In Friday night’s sweep of Nottingham, the Bees won each set by a 25-8 margin. Overall, B’ville had 22 aces, five of them by Foertch, while Stone and Voyer each got four aces, Stone recording 15 assists and six kills as Voyer got seven kills. Parrow-Strong and Sophia Cali both had three aces as Welcher and Sophia Cronk had four kills apiece. Summer McClingtic earned seven assists.
Aside from a second match with West Genesee Tuesday and a follow-up with Corcoran on Thursday, the Bees will make its annual trip to Long Island and the New York City area to take part in the John Glenn-Northport Invitational,
