A strong stretch of matches for the West Genesee girls volleyball team provided lots of confidence going into Thursday night’s match at Liverpool, but it could not hold on to a late lead and fell in five sets to the Warriors.
When they had first met Sept. 28 in Camillus, the Wildcats claimed a three-set sweep. Immediately, that was changed in the rematch when Liverpool won the first set, but when WG took the next two sets by scores of 25-16 and 25-22, it looked to have restored its superiority to the Warriors.
However, the closeness of the third set gave Liverpool confidence, and when it pulled out the fourth set 25-21, it carried that momentum to the final set and won another 25-21 decision to get even with the Wildcats.
Still, Sasha Mekker earned a rare triple-double, augmenting her 44 assists with 12 kills and 21 digs as Jaylin Mallore added 24 digs and Audrey Dennis 19 digs to go with her seven kills and four aces. Rachel Hillery had a team-best 17 kills and added 18 digs, with Carolyn King adding 14 kills and three digs. Madison Smith had 11 kills and four digs.
For Liverpool, Caitlyn Metrick had 14 kills, 10 assists, four aces, five blocks and six digs, while Sophia Vangelov earned 30 assists, adding six digs and three kills. Karlie King had her own double-double of 13 kills and 11 digs, with Anna Salamino also getting 11 digs. Lee Keeling had six kills and six digs as Abby Anderson got eight assists and Madison Lapointe earned five kills, six blocks, five digs and two aces. Katie Boak contributed eight digs.
It was WG’s third match in four days, as it had played last Monday and swept Henninger 25-9, 25-7, 25-6. Eight different Wildcats combined for 18 aces, with Sam Sprague earning five of them and Sasha Mekker getting four aces, plus 30 assists, three kills and nine digs. Jaylin Mallore added 11 digs.
On WG’s front line, Carolyn King hurt Henninger with 10 kills, while Rachel Hillery and Audrey Dennis earned seven kills apiece. Dennis also had five digs, with Madison Stanton getting four digs and Mackenzie Smith adding three digs.
Back home on Tuesday, the Wildcats celebrated Senior Night with a 25-12, 25-18, 25-13 sweep over Corcoran. It included six aces and seven digs from Hillery, who put away 11 kills as King got 10 kills and Dennis nine kills, plus nine digs. Mekker piled up 27 assists, plus nine digs.
Bishop Ludden met Hannibal last Monday night, and won the first set 25-23. However, the Warriors got even, 25-19, in the second set and then rolled through the third set 25-13 before claiming the fourth set 25-15.
For Ludden, Aurora Deshaies earned nine kills and two aces, while Nicole Noreault stepped up with seven kills. Natalie Fagan finished with 18 assists and six digs as Megan Wilkinson earned 15 digs and Bridget Brogan put together nine digs and three kills. Megan Catalano matched Fagan’s total of six digs.
A day later, Ludden did sweep Living Word Academy 25-19, 25-23, 25-27. Each set proved tough, but the Gaelic Knights pulled through as Fagan, with 12 assists, and Kari Plumridge, with six assists, passed it to Deshaies, who had eight kills and six aces. Brogan had five kills and 10 digs, with Noreaul adding four kills. Wilkinson (11 digs) and Catalano (six digs) helped on the back line as Sarah Smith contributed three aces.
Then the Gaelic Knights got a 25-3 first-set destruction of Syracuse Academy of Science on Thursday as it went on to sweep the Atoms 25-15 and 25-11. Deshaies got 12 aces, nearly half a set’s worth, and Brogan added nine aces as Noreault got five kills, Lundy Toia three kills and Fagan six assists.
