Far too often in the last decade, the Liverpool girls volleyball team’s strong season and championship aspirations have stopped cold at the expense of its neighbors from Baldwinsville.
Trying to turn that around in Tuesday night’s sectional Class AA final at Cicero-North Syracuse, the Warriors were on the brink of pulling even with the Bees through two sets, but could not quite pull it off, and ultimately fell in three sets.
In their two regular-season meetings (on Sept. 20 and Oct. 6), Liverpool managed to take just one set from B’ville. Turning that around would require a superb all-around effort and few, if any, mistakes against an opponent that exploited every one of those mistakes.
They were tied, 6-6, early in the first set, and it was still relatively close at 13-10 when the Bees, off the serves of libero Summer McClintic, netted six consecutive points, from which Liverpool could not recover in a 25-16 decision.
But the second set was a different matter – at least most of the way. Liverpool seized leads of 6-2, 9-6, 16-13 and 20-18, only to see B’ville make its way back on each occasion.
After seeing a 22-20 lead slip away, the Warriors went back in front, 23-22, but the Bees answered with two points to get its first lead of the set. Liverpool fought off a set point, yet B’ville got back the serve and pulled it out, 26-24.
That long effort to get even in the match took a toll, and the Warriors never led in the third set, B’ville going on a 12-1 run to pull clear and ultimately complete the sweep, 25-13, for a 10th consecutive sectional championship.
Madison Lapoint put up nine kills, with Leahana Keeling adding five kills. Mackenzie Stonebarger earned three aces and five digs as Ashley Teixeira got eight digs. Sophie Vangelov produced 15 assists. Toria Betelak got three kills and three blocks.
B’ville’s Maddie Stone had 30 assists, her passes often going to Rileigh Kimball, who had 14 kills, and Sophia Cronk, who got eight kills. McClintic finished with seven aces and 11 digs.
Liverpool finished at 15-3, with all three defeats coming to B’ville. Six seniors – Vangelov, Teixeira, Stonebarger, Keeling, Lapoint and Betelak – will graduate, meaning a new set of starters will need to step up for 2018.
