For the second time in as many months, the Fayetteville-Manlius and Jamesville-DeWitt boys volleyball teams were battling against each other on the court.
But the result of last Tuesday’s neighborhood clash was no different than their first encounter Sept. 20, with the Hornets taking just three sets to put away the Red Rams.
Here, the first set was fairly close, but F-M was never in any real danger, taking it 25-20 and following it up with a comfortable 25-17 victory in the second set.
J-D nearly pushed the match further, but the Hornets held on, 25-23, in the third set as Chris Blum anchored F-M’s efforts, earning 29 assists.
Aaron Costanza paced the Hornets’ front line with nine kills, adding two aces. Joe Powless had seven kills, four aces and four digs, with Anderson Fuller getting six kills as Evan Bybee and Adam Tantalo had four kills apiece.
For its part, J-D had Matt Cieplicki gain eight kills and Matt Kemmis add six kills as Nick Mandelis finished with four kills and Sam Fechtner fed all of them with 19 assists.
F-M would have another big match on Thursday when it hosted defending sectional Division I champion Cicero-North Syracuse, whom it pushed hard in a four-set defeat a few weeks earlier.
Now on its home court, the Hornets earned one of the most impressive victories in the entire history of the program, blowing out the usually formidable Northstars in a three-set sweep.
The tone was set right away, F-M serving well and getting contributions from all of its front-line players in a 25-13 opening-set romp. And the next two sets weren’t that different, the Hornets going in front and staying there in a way C-NS had done to them so often.
By scores of 25-16 and 25-18, F-M completed the sweep, and pulled it off with no one getting more than the six kills from Fuller as Blum put together 22 assists.
Costanza, Bybee and Powless had five kills apiece, with Costanza getting five digs and four blocks as Bybee and Adam Tantalo both earned three blocks. Powless added four digs.
J-D played that same night, and swept Syracuse 25-17, 25-11, 25-18. Fechtner had 11 assists and Liam Kaplan seven assists as Cieplicki and Kemmis both earned six kills, with Cieplicki adding four aces and Mandelis getting four kills.
