Even though back-to-back defeats to Marcellus and Westhill derailed the Cazenovia girls volleyball team’s hopes of an undefeated regular season, it didn’t cause long-term damage to the Lakers’ hopes.
Right after those losses, Cazenovia won the Onondaga High School League Liberty division tournament Oct. 21 at Phoenix. Then it put together an impressive effort in last Monday’s match against Oswego at Buckley Gym.
Though the first set was close, the Lakers won it, 25-22, and proceeded to dominate the Buccaneers in the next two sets by margins of 25-15 and 25-10.
Delaney Yorks finished with 25 assists, her passes often going to Morgan Hodinger, who earned 13 kills. Lindsey Lawson, Madison West and Ryleigh Tillison had five kills apiece as Tillison also got five aces and 11 digs. Lauren Burdidge earned 10 digs and Hodinger contributed eight digs.
Against Norwich (Section IV) a night later, Cazenovia won again, overcoming a 25-21 defeat to the Purple Tornado in the first set to take the next two set 25-12 and 25-18, then hanging on to win the fourth set 26-24.
Yorks earned 39 assists, an average of nearly 10 assists per set, while Burbdige set a season mark with 35 digs. Lawson had 14 kills and 10 blocks, adding six digs as Hodinger got 12 kills and 19 digs. Tillison earned 22 digs as she and West both got eight kills. Laura Clements finished with four digs.
As it turned out, the two losses dropped Cazenovia to the no. 2 seed in the six-team Section III Class B playoff bracket.
In Wednesday’s semifinal, the Lakers face Marcellus again, after the no. 3 seed Mustangs toppled no. 6 Homer in last Friday’s opening round in four sets. The winner gets to the final this Saturday at Fayetteville-Manlius at 5 p.m. against Westhill or Solvay.
