Girls volleyball teams at East Syracuse Minoa, Christian Brothers Academy and Manlius-Pebble Hill continue to have their seasons during the winter, and have already begun their respective 2017-18 campaigns.
CBA went first, going to Cortland on Nov. 21and prevailing in a three-set sweep, beating the Purple Tigers 25-16 in the first and third sets, with a 25-21 second set in between.
Catherine Burns and Kristen DeLorenzo set the tone, each with four aces as Burns added four kills and DeLorenzo put up eight digs. Virginia Nash had three kills as Anna Jenkins gained six assists, Zoe Campanino got three assists and Delaney Della Donna had three digs.
ESM did not start until last Monday night, when it traveled to Utica Proctor and dominated from start to finish against the Raiders, completing a 25-8, 25-13, 25-6 sweep.
Isabella Talarico returns as the Spartans’ top setter and earned 18 assists. On a well-balanced ESM front line, Arrica Williams had five kills, with Gillianne McCarthy and Riley Abbot each getting four kills and four aces.
Of the three opening matches, MPH had, by far, the most difficult one, taking on perennial Class C power Tully last Tuesday and taking a 25-6, 25-10, 25-12 defeat to the Black Knights. Ren Brown led the Trojans with three kills and five assists as Emma Purce gained seven digs.
Meanwhile, CBA took on Cato-Meridian and lost the first set 25-17, but then tore through the second set 25-5 before claiming the next two sets by 25-17 and 25-22 margins to improve to 2-0.
Della Donna picked up nine kills, plus four aces. Jenkins finished with 14 assists, with Campanino picking up nine assists. DeLorenzo served up eight aces to go with five digs as Nash had five aces and four kills. Burns had three aces and three kills.
A day later, the Brothers had to face defending sectional Class B champion Chittenango, and had a far different result, unable to gain footing against the Bears, who won 25-16, 25-13, 25-15 led by 14 kills from Tyla Cutrie and 13 kills from Megan Mayer.
MPH met Fabius-Pompey Friday night and was more competitive in each of the sets than it was against Tully, yet still lost, 25-16, 25-19, 25-23 to the Falcons.
Brown picked up 17 assists for the Trojans as, up front, Mariah Rinaldi gained nine kills and eight digs. Liza Bruno also had eight digs to go with six kills. Sara Smith contributed four kills. Delaney Horst led F-P with nine kills and four aces.
