With a reasonable early-season schedule, the Cicero-North Syracuse girls volleyball accumulated wins and confidence before its most important league matches.
And it all led to last Wednesday’s match against Fayetteville-Manlius, who had given Baldwinsville a good battle two nights earlier. It turned out to be a memorable match.
The Hornets appeared to have control when it rolled through the first set 25-15 and took a close second set 25-21. But after C-NS handled the third set 25-9, it survived the Hornets’ attempt to end the match in the fourth.
Claiming that fourth set 27-25, the Northstars carried that momentum over to the final set and won 25-17, completing its comeback as Jennifer Carl set a career mark with 43 assists, to go with six digs and four aces.
Segars not only had a team-best 17 kills, she got 10 digs as Hannah Mingle produced 29 digs. Adriana Houston had 12 kills, while Aurora Lesinski and McKenna Johnston had 11 kills apiece.
As F-M was battling B’ville, C-NS took on West Genesee, and the Northstars were quite impressive here, only needing three sets to put away the Wildcats 25-15, 25-16, 25-17.
A steady, consistent C-NS effort included Jennifer Carl earning 16 assists, six aces and seven digs. Brooke Segars also served well, getting four aces to go with eight kills and eight digs. Aurora Lesinski had a team-best nine kills as Hannah Mingle and McKenna Johnston matched Carl by getting seven digs.
Humbled again by Baldwinsville on Sept. 4, the Liverpool girls volleyball team turned its attention to last Monday’s match against Nottingham and earned a three-set sweep.
Lexi Carfi finished with 12 assists, her passes often going to Abby Rowell, who finished with five kills. Sarah Ayling also had five kills as the pair combined for 11 aces and Veronica DeTota added three kills.
When Liverpool tried to turn it around against West Genesee on Wednesday night, it lost in three sets, with each of the last two sets close 26-24 decisions after the Wildcats took the opener 25-20.
An even tougher match followed on Thursday at Marcellus, where the Warriors lost the first two sets 26-24 and 25-19, only to rally and take the next two sets 25-19 and 25-23.
Still, the Mustangs held off Liverpool 25-22 in the final set, despite Ayling’s 11 kills. K Yarn and Theresa Gullo had four kills apiece as Helen Nash got six digs and Carfi produced 16 assists.
In boys volleyball, Cicero-North Syracuse returned from an opening weekend in the Buffalo area that included a victory in the Williamsville South Tournament, and kept on rolling.
The Northstars swept Jamesville-DeWitt 25-18, 25-13, 25-22 last Tuesday night as Brandon Millias finished with 30 assists and seven digs. Up front, Dan Seliger earned 11 kills and five digs, with Kevin Felasco getting 10 kills and four digs. Grant Sennett added four kills and Carter Wisely earned six digs.
That same night, Liverpool won its season opener, the Warriors going to Central Square and defeating the Redhawks in a 25-16, 25-18, 25-20 sweep before having its own match against J-D two nights later.
Against the Syracuse City team on Thursday, C-NS won 25-9, 25-18, 25-13, with 14 different players getting at least one kill, but none moer than the five from Jared Gilbert. Trace LaRobardiere earned 11 digs as Chris D’Agostino had nine assists and Millias had seven assists.
Then, on Thursday, Liverpool met J-D and lost, 25-19, 25-21, 25-18. Home all this week, C-NS would welcome Baldwinsville on Tuesday, Central Square on Thursday and Canisius (Buffalo) on Saturday. Liverpool faces Living Word Academy, Oswego and Syracuse City this week.
