Two wins away from an undefeated regular season, the Cazenovia girls volleyball team knew that some of the most difficult tests would come at the end, but didn’t imagine that anyone would beat them.
Those feelings changed last Tuesday night at Marcellus, when the Lakers saw two different leads disappear in a five-set defeat to the Mustangs.
A long-time power with a raft of Section III titles on its ledger, the Mustangs had dropped off in recent years, but was enjoying a decent 9-5 season when the 14-0 Lakers paid a visit.
Cazenovia won the first set 25-20, but on the brink of extending that lead, the Lakers stumbled and Marcellus pulled out the second set 26-24.
And Marcellus didn’t get rattled when the Lakers rolled through the third set 25-15. Instead, the Mustangs played its best volleyball in the latter stages, comfortably taking the fourth set 25-18 and continuing to get all of the important points in a decisive 25-19 fifth set.
For Marcellus, Olivia Quick did it all, from 27 assists to six kills, four aces, three blocks and five digs. Julia Piorkowski led the defense, earning 18 digs to go with six kills, four aces and three assists.
Helping them, Grace Hoey had a team-best nine kills and four blocks, adding five digs, two aces and two assists. Sydney French put together 11 digs, six aces and seven kills, while Meghan O’Brien managed eight kills and four blocks.
It wouldn’t be that easy for Cazenovia to recover, because on Thursday night it hosted 13-1 Westhill. The defeat to Marcellus would either motivate the Lakers to a higher level, or expose weaknesses that other quality opponents could use to their advantage.
Westhill made sure it was the latter of those two fates, dominating the first set 25-15 and then winning the next two sets by 25-19 and 25-20 margins.
The Warriors’ Mackenzie Martin was in prime form, amassing 23 assists, seven kills and nine digs. Montanna Gedney had 12 kills, 10 assists and seven digs as Sara Galante added seven kills, three aces and 10 digs.
Also for Westhill, Brigid Heinrich got eight kills as Leah Diefendorf picked up seven digs, Emma Bryant got three kills and Sophia Sgroi had three aces.
Despite all this, Cazenovia ended the week – and the regular season – with a real flourish, prevailing Saturday during the Onondaga High School League Liberty division tournament in Phoenix.
Later this week, the Section III Class B playoffs will start, with Cazenovia perhaps running into Marcellus or Westhill again and needing to avenge those defeats if it wanted to claim another championship banner.
