High school boys volleyball is underway for 2018, with Fayetteville-Manlius and Jamesville-DeWitt each looking for early-season success.
F-M’s first big test came on Thursday night against Baldwinsville, who like the Hornets considered themselves the main challengers to defending sectional champion Cicero-North Syracuse.
And the Bees won a close first set 26-24, but from there F-M took over, winning the next two sets by 25-21 and 25-19 margins before withstanding B’ville’s quest to take it to a fifth set by holding on in the fourth 25-23.
Chris Blum amassed 41 assists, an average of better than 10 assists per set, and that helped the likes of Anderson Fuller, who had 18 kills, and Joe Powless, who got 13 kills, plus eight digs and three aces.
Aaron Costanza was also a key factor, earning eight kills as Evan Bybee had three kills and two aces. Defensively, Isaac Frechette produced 11 digs. Tom Higman led B’ville with 18 assists, seven kills and four blocks. Luc Jerome had a team-best 10 kills as Aidan Priest got six kills.
Two nights earlier, F-M had put away the combined Syracuse City team 25-10, 25-15, 25-11 in its season opener, earning 25 total aces.
Fuller (seven aces) and Costanza (six aces) led the way as they each picked up seven kills, too. Blum, with 15 assists, and Adam Tantalo had three aces apiece as Powless got four kills. Brandon Rogers picked up six assists.
Back on Sept. 6, J-D opened its season against Oswego, and lost in three sets, each of the first two sets ending 25-17 and the third set going 25-20 in the Buccaneers’ favor.
Matt Kemmis had five kills, with Kenny Hildreth and Nick Mandelis earning four kills apiece. Sam Fechtner earned nine assists and Liam Kaplan had eight assists as, for Oswego, Nate Devinny had 31 assists and Cole Pratt led with 10 kills.
But the Red Rams rebounded Tuesday with a 25-14, 25-22, 25-19 sweep of Living Word Academy last Tuesday night, led by Fechtner, who had 18 assists, and Kaplan, who got 17 assists.
Matt Cieplicki’s 10 kills paced a well-balanced J-D front line that included Kemmis and Mandelis with seven kills apiece. Ian Freezman contributed five kills as Kemmis had three blocks.\
Without any time to rest, J-D faced Central Square Wednesday and, after dropping the first set 25-22, won the second set 25-16, only to see the Redhawks pull out the third set 25-23 and close it out 25-18 in the fourth.
Up front, Cieplicki had nine kills and three blocks, with Kemmis getting six kills and five blocks. Hildreth (five kills) and Mandelis (four kills) helped on the front line, too, as Kaplan got 13 assists and Fechtner 12 assists.
,
