A bit of history was made as the Bishop Grimes girls volleyball team claimed the first Section III title in the program’s history.
It came in last Saturday’s sectional final at Fayetteville-Manlius against Living Word Academy, where the Cobras never were in any serious danger, beating the Lions 25-20 in the first set, handling the second set 25-11 and closing it out, 25-16, in the third set for the sweep.
Raquel McDonald led Grimes’ front line, earning 13 kills. Bri Squier had six kills, with Kenna Kelly adding five kills as Audrey Hathaway picked up 23 assists. Kendall Mancuso had nine digs as Becca Vinciquerra (four aces) and Mara Gutchess (three aces) served well.
Later that same night, Jamesville-DeWitt was tasked with trying to defeat Oswego in the sectional Class A final, and in yet another long battle between the two sides, the Red Rams lost to the Buccaneers in five sets.
Oswego has turned into J-D’s nemesis, beating them in the 2016 sectional final and, this fall, twice topping the Rams in epic battles that both went the full five sets.
They would do so again here, J-D going in front twice with 25-22 wins in the first and third sets, the Bucs fighting back by winning the second and fourth sets by 25-20 margins.
Only in the final set did Oswego go in front for good and win it, 25-19, negating some fine individual efforts by J-D players including Amy Shen, who amassed 11 kills, 25 digs and 10 blocks.
Alexandria Payne had 21 kills and 16 digs, with Lexie Gambacorto getting 17 kills and 13 digs. Madeline Ferris earned 43 assists, five blocks and four kills as Alexis LeClair managed 26 digs and Skylar Hardt got 12 digs.
Oswego, meanwhile, saw Laurin Furlong’s 43 assists go to Adeline Benjamin (22 kills), Kennedy Shurtleff (17 kills) and McKinley Thompson (10 kills, five blocks), while Samantha Gardner had 15 digs.
J-D earned that spot against Oswego by roaring through last Wednesday’s sectional Class A semifinal against no. 3 seed Fulton, taking the first set 25-9 and breezing to 25-16 and 25-12 wins in the next two sets.
Gamabcorto managed seven aces to go with seven kills as Shen produced six aces. Payne put together 18 kills and 14 digs as Ferris finished with 27 assists, five digs and three aces.
Back on Wednesday, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls side was at Liverpool in the sectional Class AA semifinals, with the no. 3 seed Hornets taking a three-set defeat to the Warriors.
Back on Oct. 10, F-M had pushed Liverpool to five sets, but here the only close call was a 30-28 third set that still went in the Warriors’ favor following after the Hornets took 25-16 and 25-15 defeats in the first two sets.
Saara Vahtola finished with 13 kills and six digs, while Paige Hulbert earned 11 kills and 10 digs. On the back line, Erianna Madill picked up 28 assists as Rachel Quilty-Koval earned 15 digs.
On Liverpool’s side, Madison Lapoint had 10 kills, helped by Leahana Keeling (six kills) and Toria Betelak (five kills) as Sydney Caviness got 12 assists and Sophie Vangelov 11 assists, Ashley Teixeira contributing 17 digs.
A night later, it was the turn of the F-M boys, playing on its home court, to try and beat no. 2 seed Baldwinsville and earn a shot at top seed Cicero-North Syracuse in the finals.
The Hornets won the first set 25-23, only to have the Bees take the second set 25-21. The next two sets were close, too, but B’ville claimed both of them by 25-22 and 25-23 margins to prevail.
Chris Perry finished with 35 assists, his passes going to Aaron Costanza (13 kills), Joe Powless (11 kills) and Cade Collum (nine kills). Jordan Glazier got 12 digs, with Costanza getting seven digs. Powless and Dean Assenza both got six digs as Perry had five digs.
