The second half of September offered the Cazenovia girls volleyball team an opportunity to pick up a series of match wins and regain the confidence that a pair of early-season defeats may have dented.

Amid it all, the Lakers may have hit a turning point in last Thursday’s match at Bishop Ludden, where it erased a big deficit to defeat the Gaelic Knights in five sets.

Each of the first two sets proved close, but Ludden won them, 27-25 and 25-22, and was doing enough in the third set to think about beating Cazenovia for the first time.

Instead, the Lakers stood up, claimed the third set 25-20, and then dominated the fourth set 25-13 before completing its comeback with a 25-18 victory in the final set.

Quinlan Emhoff paced Cazenovia’s front line, earning 13 kills. Maddie Waite finished with seven kills, while Helen Hauser, Kylie Fenton and Maren Smith earned five kills apiece.

The back-line duties included assists from Josie Avery and plenty of defense from Waite, who accumulated 29 digs as Avery also had eight digs, with Hauser and Lindsey Clements each contributing six digs.

Two nights earlier, the Lakers had swept Hannibal 25-7, 25-18, 25-14, putting away 22 aces, six of them by Avery to go with her 24 assists and five digs.

Hauser gained  five aces and four kills, with Fenton getting four aces and four kills. Waite had a team-best four kills and Anastasiya Yavorska contributed four kills. Clements earned six digs and Natalie Tresco got five digs.

Back on Sept. 10, Cazenovia needed just three sets to defeat LaFayette 25-12, 25-18, 25-12, with Clements and Fenton setting the tone as Clements got seven aces and Fenton adding six aces.

Up front, Hauser and Emhoff both produced five kills, with Clements adding four kills. Avery fed all of them with 20 assists as Hauser got eight digs, Waite and Natalie Tresco each adding six digs.

Then came the Sept. 12 match against Skaneateles, where Cazenovia dropped the first two sets 25-19 and 25-22, won the third set in another 25-22 decision and nearly extended it further before dropping a close fourth set 25-23.

Waite was a wonder on the defensive side, gaining 26 digs. Avery, with her 21 assists to go with three aces, passed it to Hauser (eight kills) and Emhoff (seven kills) as Hauser added three aces and six digs. Waite had four kills and Clements earned four assists.

Cazenovia faces Bishop Grime and Altmar-Parish-Williamstown this week before taking part in Saturday’s Baldwinsville Fall Swing Tournament, which features 28 teams from across New York State, including many Albany and Rochester-area powerhouses.