Maybe it figured that, after 39 long seasons without celebrating a Section III championship, the Chittenango girls volleyball team would have to wait a few minutes longer to get to the top.
On the brink of sweeping no. 3 seed Vernon-Verona-Sherrill in Saturday’s sectional Class B final on its own home court, the top-seeded Bears had to endure three swings and misses on match points before finally converting the point it needed to put away the Red Devils.
With that, Chittenango had a title last earned in 1978, two-plus decades before any of the current Bears players were born. But coach Amy Saunders led a group that went 13-1 in the regular season, its lone blemish a Nov. 28 defeat to Tully, who went on to an undefeated season and the sectional Class C title.
From December onward, though, no one would beat the Bears, and that included three sectional playoff matches. Chittenango swept Holland Patent in the quarterfinals Feb. 9 and then took four sets to top Lowville in last Tuesday’s semifinal round.
VVS, who had not dropped a set in either of its playoff wins over Oneida and no. 2 seed Canastota, stood as the last obstacle, but in the early going was no match for the Bears’ power and precision.
Chittenango jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the opening set. The Red Devils closed the margin to 11-8, but the Bears answered with five straight points and cruised from there to claim the set 25-16.
It was more lopsided in the second set. Other than surrendering the opening point, Chittenango did not trail once, starting on a 5-1 run and then using a 9-1 spurt, including Mya Streiff’s back-to-back aces, to get away. With the last six points on Alyssa Bates’ serve, the Bears won, 25-10, and were within a set of a sectional title.
But that third set proved quite different from the first two. VVS took an 8-3 lead, but Chittenango caught up at 13-13, starting a tense exchange that the Red Devils halted by scoring five straight points to break a 16-16 tie.
Though Chittenango halted the run, VVS got to a 24-21 lead, needing one point to extend the match. Instead, the Bears fought off three set points and then went ahead, 25-24, leading to a match point.
Only now it was the Red Devils’ turn to save itself. Three times, Chittenango had a point to prevail and each of those times VVS fought it off. Only after Tyla Cutrie’s block broke a 27-27 tie and Cutrie added a kill on the fourth match point did the Bears end it, 29-27.
Cutrie finished the match with 12 kills and four blocks, while Megan Mayer had nine kills and eight digs. Bates added five kills and Streiff got 14 digs as Shelby Maring earned 15 assists and Tiffany Scofield got 11 assists.
In order to get this sectional final home match, Chittenango first had to get past no. 3 seed and defending champion Lowville in last Tuesday’s Class B semifinal at Clinton High School, and it didn’t prove easy at the outset.
Lowville’s quick start caught Chittenango by surprise, the Red Raiders leading 18-8 at one point in the opening set. From there, though, the Bears settled into its rhythm and, though it lost that first set 25-17, it wouldn’t trail for long.
The second set was a 25-6 Chittenango romp, and that carried over into a 25-14 third set. Lowville tried to recover in the fourth set, staying close for a while, but a fast finish by the Bears created a 25-18 victory and a berth in the finals.
Between them, Maring, with six aces and18 assists, and Scofield, with 13 assists, handled the back line, joined by Streiff, who had 19 digs. Cutrie put away 23 kills, nearly a full set’s worth, while Bates mixed in seven kills and 14 digs. Mayer also had seven kills, plus five digs.
