It took nearly the entire regular season before the Cicero-North Syracuse boys volleyball team received a blemish in the form of an Oct. 21 defeat to Rochester McQuaid.
With two matches left before the Section III playoffs, the Northstars were intent on reasserting its winning form, and started to do so in last Tuesday night’s sweep of Central Square.
Each of the first two sets was won by comfortable margins, 25-15 and 25-17, but the Redhawks made the third set a longer one, C-NS having to go beyond the limit to complete the sweep 26-24.
To help Josh Bigford, who had 17 kills and five digs, Trent Caviness put up eight kills and 10 digs, while Kyle Alberici had five kills. Tristen Cummings earned 30 assists and four kills as Dylan Gesser earned nine digs. Central Square got 10 kills from Elijah Elmer and 23 assists from Cooper Colesante.
Hosting Fayetteville-Manlius Thursday night, C-NS honored its five seniors – Bigford, Cummings, Alberici, Gesser and Louis D’Agostino – before the match, and then proceeded to blast past the Hornets 25-13, 25-18, 25-16.
Each of the seniors saw significant action, including D’Agostino, who contributed five digs on the defensive side to aid Gesser, who finished with six digs.
Cummings earned 31 assists, four kills and three digs, passing it to Bigford, who put away 20 kills to go with six digs. Alberici finished with four kills and two blocks as Caviness got six aces, plus five kills. Josh Pickard gained three kills and two blocks.
Liverpool visited Baldwinsville last Tuesday night, unable to gain a set from the Bees in a 25-18, 25-12, 25-21 defeat.
Jagger Alberici had 15 digs for the Warriors, while Vincent Lee earned five assists. Eric Baker got two aces and two kills as B’ville featured Tyler Aiello, who had 10 kills, and Keegan Stan, who got 17 assists.
When the Section III girls volleyball Class AA playoffs got underway, Liverpool had the no. 2 seed, and after a bye it will face Fayetteville-Manlius in Wednesday’s semifinal after the Hornets swept Central Square.
Cicero-North Syracuse, with the no. 4 seed, took on no. 5 seed West Genesee in last Friday’s opening round, a mere two weeks after beating these same Wildcats in four sets, but that did little to help the Northstars this time around.
WG would prevail 25-21 in the first set and then claim the second set by a 25-18 margin. Needing a big comeback, C-NS pulled out the third set 25-23 and were two points from forcing it to the wire before the Wildcats claimed the fourth set 27-25 to end it.
Kaylin VanAuken had 15 assists and Olivia Salvador earned 20 digs, with Kim Barry adding 10 assists. Barry also had five kills, matching Brooke Nicolaos and Gracie Gleason as Olivia Johnson earned 10 kills and Madelyn Murray got nine kills, plus three aces.
On WG’s side, Carolyn King picked up 20 kills, adding six digs. Anna Snyder finished with 26 assists, adding eight digs as Audrey Dennis earned 13 digs and Arlea Vecchio finished with six digs. Greta Jasinski matched King’s total of six digs.
