Up until last Tuesday night’s visit to Baldwinsville, the Cicero-North Syracuse boys volleyball team hadn’t received serious resistance from any of its local opponents.
That changed, though, in the Baker High School gym, where the Bees had leads in every set and real chances to win one of them, but could not do so as the Northstars showed some fortitude and pulled off a three-set sweep.
Like C-NS, B’ville was undefeated, with a 6-0 mark, though it had a rougher path to those six straight wins that included back-to-back five-set decisions over Fayetteville-Manlius earlier in the month.
The Bees also remembered how C-NS had beaten them in last fall’s Section III III Division I final, and this was their first head-to-head match since that 2015 title match.
C-NS trailed most of the opening set, and even when it fought back to gain a 22-19 lead, B’ville rallied to pull even, and did much the same thing in a second set that featured 10 ties and the Bees scoring two straight points to tie it, 20-20.
But the Northstars had the ability to get the points that really mattered, helped by B’ville 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.
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.
For B’ville, 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.
Moving to girls volleyball, Liverpool tried to get past its Sept. 22 loss to Baldwinsville, which meant playing well against another challenger, West Genesee, last Wednesday night.
But the Wildcats would mimic the Bees in sweeping the Warriors by equal 25-17 margins in the first and third sets, with a 25-12 set in between. Karlie King had four kills and Madison Lapointe put up six assists, with Lee Keeling adding three kills. Caitlyn Metrick and Sophia Vangelov had four assists apiece. Katie Boak and Anna Salamino each got six digs as, for WG, Sasha Mekker’s 24 assists fed it to Carolyn King (nine kills), Audrey Dennis and Rachel Hillery (eight kills each) on the front line.
Ironically, that same night, C-NS had its encounter with B’ville, and improved as the night went on, even though it couldn’t quite grab a set from the undefeated Bees in a 25-9, 25-17, 25-23 defeat.
Not only did Jessica Barry earn 14 assists, she also matched the team-best total of four kills put up by Olivia Johnson, Corrine Rutkowski and Madelyn Murray. Sharlene Richards contributed five assists as Savannah Ciciarelli earned 11 digs. Johnson and Barry had five digs apiece. For B’ville, Maddie Stone had 29 assists and Michelle Voyer led the front line, earning 10 kills.
Two nights earlier, C-NS rolled past Nottingham 25-4, 25-12, 25-9, converting 21 aces, nearly a full set’s worth. Rutkowski had five of those aces, adding two kills as Ciciarelli, Murray and Emily Overend got four aces apiece.
Jessica Barry finished with seven assists, with Richards earning four assists and Kaylin VanAuken three assists. Murray had a team-best four kills, just ahead of Overend and Kim Barry, who each got three kills. Olivia Salvador had three digs and two kills.
Playing again on Friday, C-NS took on Fayetteville-Manlius. The Northstars won the first two sets 25-19 and 25-16, but could not put the Hornets away, dropping each of the next two sets by equal 25-21 margins before a 25-22 defeat in the final set completed F-M’s comeback.
Despite the loss, Jessica Barry amassed seven kills, 19 assists, seven aces, three blocks and nine digs. Johnson had seven kills and seven digs, with Murray and Kim Barry both getting five kills and Murray adding four blocks. Overend got four kills and Rutkowski three kills to go with eight digs. Salvador earned 14 digs and Ciciarelli contributed 12 digs.
Far from all this, Liverpool swept Corcoran 25-13, 25-7, 25-12. with the Warriors accumulating 24 aces, six each by Metrick and Boak, as Metrick also had 14 assists and four kills.
Lapointe (five aces) and Keeling (four aces) served well, too, Keeling joining Sophia Vangalov as they got five kills apiece and Vangalov contributed eight assists. Lapointe and Andreson each earned four kills, with Boak contributing seven digs.
