This would prove one of the busiest weeks of the Baldwinsville girls volleyball team’s regular season, capped by its annual Fall Swing tournament on Saturday that brought most of the area’s top teams to the Baker High School gyms, along with other top teams from across the state.
Just how tough was evident in the Gold division, where B’ville defated Victor to reach the semifinals, but lost to Shenendehowa (Section II), the team that eliminated them in each of the last two Class AA regional finals.
Shen, who had defeated Liverpool in the quarterfinals, went on to beat another Section II powerhouse, Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake, in the finals of the Gold Division. Silver Division honors went to Westhill, who beat Webster Schroeder for the title, while in the Bronze division Homer topped Saratoga Springs in the finals.
To start the week, the Bees hosted Fayetteville-Manlius last Monday night, rolling through a 25-8 first set before taking the next two sets by 25-14 and 25-19 margins.
Maddie Stone led with 28 assists, adding four kills. Rileigh Kimball got 10 kills, while Katie Welcher added nine kills. Summer McClintic led the Bees’ defense by earning 10 digs as Kristen Liu got five aces and three blocks. Sophia Cronk added four digs, two aces and two kills.
At Cicero-North Syracuse two nights later, the Bees kept rolling with a 25-10, 25-11, 25-15 sweep of the Northstars, the dominant effort featuring Stone topping her F-M total with 29 assists, to go with four kills and four aces.
Welcher paced B’ville with 11 kills and three blocks, with Kimball getting 10 kills and Liu improving to seven kills. Claire McAllister stepped up with five kills as McClintic produced six digs.
A 25-9, 25-10, 25-8 sweep of Notttingham on Friday night included plenty of work for B’ville’s reserves, as Karen Ekure had six aces, adding five kills. Sophia Cali had four aces and Maggie Wiegand three aces as Dana Prokop earned seven kills. Liu and McAllister matched Ekure’s total of five kills.
In boys volleyball, Baldwinsville traveled to Central Square last Tuesday and rolled through the first two sets 25-16 and 25-21, only to drop the third set 25-14 and get pushed well beyond the wire in the fourth set before closing out the Redhawks 31-29.
Dan Cerqua, with 14 assists, and Tom Higman, with 12 digs, both worked on the Bees’ back line with Aidan Priest, who had eight digs to go with five aces.
Nate Johns had 10 kills, with Tyler Aiello adding eight kills and three aces as Davis Weakley gained five kills and six aces. Cooper Colesante (21 assists, six kills) and Bailey Baumbach (13 kills, three aces, three blocks) led the Central Square effort.
B’ville would be home again Monday to face Jamesville-DeWitt, just as the girls Bees hosted West Genesee on Tuesday and would visit Corcoran Thursday night.
