Some difficult matches faced the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse girls volleyball teams as the calendar turned to October, but none were as important as their latest head-to-head battle.
It took place last Friday night, and the Warriors, who lost a five-set battle to the Northstars exactly one month earlier, got the best of this version in four sets.
Each side had remembered that, on Sept. 5, C-NS had twice come from behind to pull out the win over Liverpool. Now, the reverse would happen, the Northstars getting out in front, but then overtaken.
Liverpool dropped that opener 25-20, but little went wrong for the Warriors from there as, over the next three sets, it overpowered the Northstars, taking those sets 25-18, 25-13 and 25-19.
On its back line, Liverpool had Avery Marcy deliver 21 assists and Sydney Caviness gain 16 assists to go with four aces and three digs. Morgan Michlovitch got nine digs and Marissa Baskin gained eight digs.
Up front, Hayley Feldt delivered 10 kills, with Sarah Ayling contributing nine kills and Alicia Nash particularly strong as her eight kills went with seven blocks and five aces.
C-NS, for its part, had Cassidy Ormond earn 21 assists as Aurora Lesinski had nine kills. Adriana Houston had six kills and four aces, with Kim Barry adding five assists and three kills. Brooke Segars had 21 digs and five kills. Brooke Nicolaos contributed four kills as she and McKenna LaPorte got six digs apiece.
The Warriors had taken part in the Sept. 29 Baldwinsville Fall Swing Tournament. Then it returned home two days later and, against Oswego, prevailed over the Buccaneers in four sets.
In each of the first two sets, Liverpool handled Oswego by scores of 25-16 and 25-23. It nearly got the swept, too, but the Bucs held on in the third set 25-23 before a fourth set where the Warriors pulled it out 25-21.
Caviness earned 20 assists, adding four aces, while Marcy managed 13 assists, adding seven kills and two blocks. Michlovitch finished with 10 digs.
Nash led with 11 kills and five blocks, helped by Marcy and Baskin, who also had seven kills. Ayling got five kills and Bryanna McRobbie four kills, with Feldt getting three kills.
Even with this, Liverpool had to deal with Baldwinsville two nights later, and like every other league opponent this season, the Warriors could not grab a set from the Bees in a 25-15, 25-15, 25-16 defeat.
Nash had four kills, four blocks and three aces, with Baskin getting three kills and three blocks. Caviness managed six assists and five digs as Michlovitch produced 13 digs. For B’ville, Rileigh Kimball had 20 kills and 11 digs as Summer McClintic got 31 assists.
C-NS, in its lone match last week, took a trip to Fayetteville-Manlius last Tuesday and just could not get going against the Hornets, taking a 25-20, 25-21, 25-13 defeat.
Segars did earn nine kills, with Gracie Gleason adding four kills and two blocks. Barry had 12 assists and four digs as Houston had four aces, LaPorte 10 digs and Nicolaos six digs.
