By only a handful of points, the East Syracuse Minoa girls volleyball team missed out on a monumental achievement.

In last Tuesday night’s match against undefeated Tully, the Spartans twice came back from deficits and forced matters into a fifth set before the Black Knights pulled it out to improve to 13-0 on the season.

Neither 12 match wins in a row, nor a 25-15 defeat in a lopsided opening set, discouraged ESM, who fought to a 25-22 victory in the second set to even the match.  And even when Tully drubbed the Spartans 25-12 in the third set, ESM quickly cast it aside, rolling through the fourth set 25-15.

This sent the match to a fifth set, where it went back and forth, but the key late points went to the Black Knights, who held on 25-21.

Isabella Talarico led ESM with 23 assists, while Aubrey Williams had 10 blocks on the front line to go with seven kills. Sophia Zacharek also had seven kills, matching Claire Maring’s total of six digs as Gillianne McCarthy had nine kills and four blocks. Arrica Williams and Kat Boland had three kills apiece.

On Tully’s side, Alexi Hamilton pulled off a rare triple-double, amassing 29 kills, plus 13 blocks and 12 assists. Maureen Murphy had 10 kills and six digs, with Mackenzie Bolt getting five kills, four blocks, nine digs and three aces. Grace Chaffee gained 45 assists, plus six aces and five kills.

Perhaps that result had a long-term effect, for ESM lost again Thursday to Onondaga, claiming the second set 25-22, but dropping the first and third sets by 25-18 margins and watching the Tigers close it out, 25-17, in the fourth set.

McCarthy picked up 14 kills, while Zacharek had nine kills and seven digs. Aubrey Williams gained eight kills as Talarico fed all of them with 33 assists and Maring had 10 digs. Rayna Pouliot paced OCS with 15 kills and 14 digs, with Samantha Geis getting 25 assist and 13 digs as Malorie Berry accumulated 27 digs.

Yet another five-set match that night involved Manlius-Pebble Hill and Port Byron. After losing the first set 25-19, the Trojans won the next two sets by 25-22 and 25-19 margins, but were stopped two points short of victory as the Panthers pulled out the fourth set 25-23 and claimed the final set by that same margin.

Sophie Novak still had 14 kills, four aces and five blocks, while Ren Brown picked up 17 assists. Julia Walsh added four aces as Maggie Carmen gained six digs. Olivia Martens carried Port Byron thanks to 30 digs, 21 assists, five aces and three kills as Allison Ryan (nine kills, 10 digs) and Caitlin O’Brien (13 digs) did well, too.

Then, when MPH took its shot at Tully on Thursday, it lost in three sets to the Black Knights, who claimed the opener 25-12 and the next two sets by equal 25-16 margins. Brown had seven assists, with Carmen earning 11 digs and Julia Mettler-Grove adding seven digs. Chaffee led Tully with 16 assists, three aces, six digs and three kills.

Christian Brothers Academy got to rest following a Jan. 13 visit from Chittenango where it lost the first set 25-15 and got blown out, 25-8, in the second set. Trying to extend the match, the Brothers could not do so as the Bears, by a 25-22 margin, completed the sweep.

Kristen DeLorenzo still had 18 digs, with Anna Jenkins earning seven assists and two kills. Sydney Congel got seven kills and five digs as Logan Congel had three kills and Liz Hucko had four assists. Catherine Burns and Jillian Hopkins had four digs apiece.

On Chittenango’s side,  Mya Streif gained six aces, while Shelby Maring earned five aces as she gained 11 assists, splitting back-line duties with Tiffany Scofield, who picked up 10 assists. Up front, Tyla Cutrie led the way, earning 11 kills as Alyssa Bates added five kills.