Having lost in five sets to visiting Canisius on Oct. 13, the Cicero-North Syracuse boys volleyball team was dead-set on getting back to a consistent winning track before the regular season ended.
A key in that effort was last Thursday’s match against Fayetteville-Manlius, whom it beat in four sets on Sept. 25 at home.
Now, on the Hornets’ home court, the Northstars went through one of its worst performances in a league match in recent memory, falling in three sets.
What made it so surprising was the sheer size of the margins. F-M, playing with confidence in front of a loud home crowd, won the first set 25-13, and the next two sets weren’t much different, C-NS taking 25-16 and 25-18 defeats.
Brandon Millias only had 10 assists, with Trent Caviness held to five assists as he got six kills and two aces, with Jake Den Bleyker getting five kills and Jon Hendry adding three kills.
For F-M, it was Chris Blum recording 22 assists, passing it to a deep, balanced front line that had Anderson Fuller earning six kills, plus five kills apiece from Joe Powless, Aaron Costanza and Evan Bybee.
Two nights earlier, C-NS had gone to Central Square and, though pushed hard in the second set, still put together a 25-12, 28-26, 25-17 victory over the Redhawks.
Trent Caviness served up six aces, got 14 assists and added nine kills, three blocks and three digs, a splendid all-around effort augmented by his teammates.
Brandon Millias had 18 assists and four digs, with Kevin Felasco gaining nine kills. Jake Den Bleyker gained seven kills as Carter Wisely had five kills and two assists. Trace LaRobardiere contributed three digs.
After the loss to F-M, C-NS tried to recover in Saturday’s match against Penfield (Section V), and while every set was close, the Northstars again took a three-set defeat, falling to the Patriots 25-22, 25-22, 25-21.
Caviness mixed in 11 kills, nine assists and three aces, with Millias getting 17 assists as Den Bleyker earned 10 kills and six digs. Wisely added three kills and Dan Seliger had five digs.
