During the last week of the regular season, the East Syracuse Minoa girls volleyball team attempted to improve upon the 11-3 record it had built over the previous two months, playing three times in a five-day span.
By far, the most difficult of those matches was supposed to be ESM’s battle with undefeated New Hartford on Wednesday night, but the cold temperatures canceled all evening activities and pushed the match back to Saturday.
Once they did meet, ESM got off to a perfect start, rolling through the first set 25-15. Yet New Hartford proceeded to win the next two sets by that same 25-15 margin and, by a 25-17 margin, took the fourth set to complete a 17-0 regular season.
Back on Monday night, ESM went up against Oneida and was quite impressive, the Spartans taking just three sets to put away the Indians 25-12, 25-18, 25-19.
Shaina Brilbeck amassed 22 assists, adding four aces and six digs. Riley Abbott and Olivia Fortuno each gained seven kills, with Fortuno adding three blocks as Gillianne McCarthy and Franchesca Polcaro had five kills apiece, Polcaro also earning eight digs.
Manlius-Pebble Hill put together a come-from-behind victory over Faith Heritage last Wednesday night that was memorable on multiple fronts.
The Saints won each of the first two sets, taking the opener 25-21 and rolling through the second set 25-13. But the Trojans won the third set 25-19, pulled even by claiming the fourth 25-21, and in a tense final set got the points it needed at the end to win 25-23.
Amid all this, MPH’s setter, Ren Brown, accomplished a rare high-school milestone, earning her 1,000th career assist. That it came in such a memorable win only made the night sweeter.
This made the Trojans’ 25-22, 25-16, 25-8 defeat to Fabius-Pompey on Saturday a bit easier to take, the Trojans seeing its overall record dip to 4-14.
