If the four-set battle it waged with Liverpool on Sept. 20 didn’t grab the full attention of the Baldwinsville girls volleyball team, what took place in the first set of the Oct. 6 rematch sure did.
Neither team was able to gain much of a lead. Finally, at 25-25, the Bees gained the serve and held on to it, winning that set 27-25 and setting up yet another sweep as B’ville roared through a 25-11 second set and won the third set 25-20 to close it out.
On B’ville’s side, Sophia Cronk (14 kills), Rileigh Kimball (11 kills) and Katie Welcher (nine kills) shared the front-line duties as Maddie Stone fed them with 40 assists and Summer McClintic got 11 digs and Sophia Cali six digs. Claire McAllister and Rachel Liu had four kills apiece.
For Liverpool, Sophie Vangelov had 10 assists and Sydney Caviness had five assists, with Toria Betelak recording six kills ahead of Madison Lapoint (four kills) and Hayley Feldt (three kills) as Ashley Teixeira had 15 digs and Lapoint added eight digs.
In last Tuesday’s 25-7, 25-12, 25-4 romp over Henninger, B’ville got five aces from Dana Prokop and three aces apiece from Carly May and Sophia Cronk. Welcher, McAllister, Cronk, Prokop and Karen Ekure each finished with three kills as Athena Norton earned six assists.
While that was going on, the Baldwinsville boys volleyball team took a four-set defeat to Fayetteville-Manlius last Tuesday night, the same side it beat in five sets back on Sept. 15.
In the rematch, the Hornets pulled out the first and second sets by close margins, 25-20 and 25-22. Then, in the third set, the Bees dominated, 25-13, only to give that right back as F-M closed it out, 25-17, in the fourth.
Tyler Aiello still managed 16 kills, with Nate Johns adding 12 kills. Cole Zsemyle had a season-best nine kills as Dan Cerqua got 27 assists, plus four aces, and Aidan Priest had six digs. Luc Jerome earned three kills as Cade Collum (14 kills) and Chris Perry (30 assists) led the F-M effort.
B’ville then faced Oswego Thursday night. The Buccaneers had, two nights earlier, led Cicero-North Syracuse by two sets, only to see the Northstars rally to prevail in five.
This match proved just as close, without the extremes. Twice, the Bees, who lost in four sets to Oswego Sept. 19, took the lead, pulling out close sets of 27-25 in the first and third.
Twice, the Bucs rallied, taking the second set 25-21 and pulling out a 25-22 fourth set to keep B’ville from claiming the match. In a fifth-set race to 15 points, Oswego won it, 15-10.
Cerqua set a career mark with 49 assists, adding six digs as Priest got 18 digs. Aiello put away 25 kills, with Johns and David Cornell each earning 10 kills and Zsemyle six kills. Oswego’s Jason Proud had 50 assists as Kyle Kon earned 26 kills and Derek Fitzsimmons added 12 kills.
B’ville had to face Buffalo-area power Canisius on Friday and lost in straight sets to the Crusaders, unable to recover from a 27-25 opening set as the Bees fell 25-17 and 25-20 in the next two sets.
Aiello had nine kills, with Johns getting five kills, six digs and four aces. Zsemyle added four kills and Jerome three kills as Cerqua notched 15 assists, with Priest earning seven digs and Cornell five digs.
