There’s a good chance that, down the road, the Jamesville-DeWitt girls volleyball team might find itself playing Oswego again for high stakes.
If so, the Red Rams know it’s close to toppling the Buccaneers, as evidenced by last Monday night’s five-set defeat in the first encounter between the two sides since last November’s Section III Class A final.
To start with, J-D responded well after Oswego dominated the first set 25-13. Each of the next two sets featured plenty of back-and-forth play, but the Rams won them, 25-23 and 25-22, to take the lead in the match.
Yet it was the Bucs making a comeback of its own by pulling out the fourth set 25-23 and then, in the final set, withstanding all of J-D’s opportunities to take it 25-22, getting 14 kills from three different players – Brianna Guentner, Kennedy Shurtleff and Adeline Benjamin – plus 41 assists from Laurie Furlong.
On the Rams’ side, Madeline Ferris produced 43 assists and 12 digs on defense, the passes mostly going to Alexandria Payne, who amassed 29 kills and got 14 digs. Lexie Gambacorto had 12 kills, 12 digs and four aces as Amy Shen managed nine kills and 18 digs. Cassie Murphy contributed 10 digs.
Fayetteville-Manlius could not top unbeaten Liverpool in last Monday’s match, despite a convincing 25-15 win in the opening set. A close second set went 25-22 in the Warriors’ favor, and the Hornets went on to drop the third and fourth sets by 25-18 and 25-22 margins.
Saara Vahtola managed 15 kills and four digs, while Paige Hulbert had 12 kills and three digs. Kedra Broddus had four kills as Erianna Madill finished with 31 assists. Rachel Quilty-Koval had five digs.
A day later, the Hornets swept Corcoran 25-7, 25-11, 25-19, a match that included six aces from Sophie Thomas to go with her 13 assists. Vahtola had six kills, just ahead of Hulbert (five kills) and Ellen Burhle (four kills, two aces) as Quilty-Koval earned three aces and Sarah Napolitano added three aces.
Bishop Grimes beat its private-school rivals from Bishop Ludden last Wednesday night, sweeping the Gaelic Knights 25-17, 25-21, 25-20.
Bri Squier, with 11 kills, and Raquel McDonald, with seven kills, led the Cobras’ front line as Audrey Hathaway got 17 assists. Kendall Mancuso had eight digs, part of a strong defense that included seven digs from Kenna Kelley and six kills from Becca Vinciquerra. Mara Gutchess earned four digs.
But Grimes lost Friday to Skaneateles, who claimed the first two sets 25-15 and 25-17 before the Cobras avoided a sweep with a 25-17 win of its own in the third set before the Lakers won the fourth set 25-14.
Hathaway managed 13 assists, most of the passes going to Squier, who had eight kills as Kelly added four kills and 11 digs. Mancuso and Vinciquerra each had seven digs as Gutchess joined Hathaway with six digs. For Skaneateles, Mia Grasso and Aidan Bennett each had eight kills, with Lily Delasin getting 19 assists and Cassidy Pitman 12 assists.
Moving to boys volleyball, Fayetteville-Manlius rebounded from a five-set loss to Baldwinsville on Sept. 15, sweeping Liverpool last Monday night 25-18, 25-17, 25-12.
Chris Perry managed 21 assists, with Cade Collum benefiting the most from those passes as he got nine kills. Joe Powless added seven kills, with Anderson Fuller gaining five kills. Cary Robb had three kills as Brian Jones and Aaron Costanza each earned four digs.
Jamesville-DeWitt fell last Tuesday night to Central Square 25-23, 25-20, 25-13. Liam Kaplan, with eight kills, paced the Red Rams as Matt Cieplicki had five kills, Nick Mandelis four kills and Ian Freezman three kills. For the Redhawks, Elijah Elmer had 15 kills, Cooper Colesante earned 32 assists and Bailey Baumbach served up nine aces.
Then F-M took its turn against Central Square on Friday and swept those same Redhawks 25-22 in the first set and 25-19 in the ensuing two sets. Collum and Costanza got eight kills apiece, with Powless adding five kills as Perry put together 21 assists, six digs and two aces.
