A second regular-season showdown between the boys volleyball teams at Fayetteville-Manlius and Jamesville-DeWitt ended just like the first one did, with the Hornets on top in a four-set contest after trailing early.
The rematch last Tuesday night went exactly like the first meeting as J-D controlled the first set and won it 25-18. Once again, F-M turned it around, 25-17, in the second set to get even.
Each of the next two sets proved close, yet the points that mattered went in the Red Rams’ favor as it won by 25-22 and 25-21 margins.
Chris Blum finished with 32 assists on F-M’s back line as Jordan Glazier got seven digs. Up front, Aaron Costanza led with 11 kills, while Cade Collum had eight kills. Anderson Fuller and Joe Powless got four kills apiece as Brian Jones contributed four aces, joining Cary Robb in earning three kills.
On J-D’s side, Matt Cieplicki finished with 10 kills, with Ian Freezman earning eight kills and Cameron Howe getting seven kills, three aces and two blocks. Nick Mandelis got four kills as Liam Kaplan earned 30 assists and Ryan Evans picked up 12 digs.
F-M would challenge Cicero-North Syracuse on Thursday night, and never get proper footing against the Northstars, who swept them 25-13, 25-18, 25-16.
Despite the loss, Blum still had 18 assists, most of them passes to Costanza, who got 11 kills. Powless had four kills and five digs as Collum added three kills and two aces. Glazier got four digs. C-NS featured Josh Bigford, who had 20 kills, and Tristen Cummings, who earned 31 assists.
After all that, the girls Section III playoffs got underway with Fayetteville-Manlius the no. 3 seed in Class AA, needing to beat no. 6 seed Central Square to earn a berth in the semifinals against no. 2 seed Liverpool.
The Hornets did so, sweeping the Redhawks by scores of 25-16, 25-21 and 25-17 as Saara Vahtola finished with 12 kills and Paige Hulbert got nine kills. Juliana Myagkota and Sonja Napolitano each had five kills. Rachel Quilty-Koval got seven digs.
Meanwhile, Jamesville-DeWitt, as the no. 2 seed in Class A, would need to beat no. 3 seed Fulton Wednesday to get to Saturday night’s final at F-M against top seed Oswego at 7 p.m.. Bishop Grimes will play in the 1p.m. Class D title match against Bishop Ludden or Living Word Academy.
