With a 14-match win streak on the line, the Cicero-North Syracuse boys volleyball team faced its most difficult head-to-head match of the winter when it took on Section V’s Penfield last Saturday afternoon.
Still in search of a first-ever state championship, the Northstars were confronting a Patriots side that won state Division I titles in 2016 and 2017.
That history did not matter in this match, though. Earning its 15th victory in a row, the Northstars rallied to beat Penfield in five sets.
C-NS claimed the opener 25-20, and lost the second 25-19. When Penfield pulled out a 26-24 decision in the third set, the Northstars were closer to defeat than in any of its previous 14 matches.
The response was quite impressive. C-NS blitzed the Patriots 25-12 in the fourth set and, in a tense final set, played to a 14-14 draw before winning the serve from Penfield and getting match point to win it, 16-14.
Brandon Millias put up 50 assists and 14 digs, with Trace LaRobardiere getting 23 digs. Up front, Dan Seliger pounded out 23 kills and 11 digs, with Grant Sennett earning 12 kills and Johnathan Hendry adding 11 kills. Kevin Felasco had five kills and 11 digs, with Carter Wisely adding five kills and eight digs.
Two nights earlier, C-NS had swept past Living Word Academy 25-13, 25-16, 25-10. Millias had 13 assists, but Chris D’Agostino aided with 12 assists. LaRobardiere earned 12 digs as Seliger had seven kills and six digs, with Felasco adding six kills and four digs.
Liverpool would climb above the .500 mark last week, getting its own 25-19, 25-17, 25-19 win over Living Word on Tuesday night before sweeping Syracuse a night later.
Against the Lions, Anthony Pezzino put away 12 kills and earned 15 digs. Jeremy Lamanche had nine kills, seven digs and two blocks, with Aidan Shoemaker and Elliott DeForge earning five kills apiece. Quinn Moore gained 28 assists, nine digs and four aces as Jagger Alberici had 14 digs and Jackson Furr had five digs.
The win over Syracuse included 22 assists from Moore, plus six digs. Alberici and Pezzino had matching totals of 13 digs, Pezzino getting six kills to complement Lamanche’s seven kills and five digs. Shoemaker had four kills and Nolan Feldt added four digs.
The brief win streak halted Friday as Liverpool fell to Jamesville-DeWitt 25-23, 25-14, 25-16, but the Warriors still held a 7-6 record and the satisfaction from having clinched a Section III playoff berth.
In girls volleyball, Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool both had three-set victories on Thursday, exactly one week before they would face each other in the regular-season finale.
The Northstars swept Nottingham 25-9, 25-4, 25-13, amassing 31 aces, eight of them by Jennifer Carl to go with her 12 assists as Cassidy Ormond got five aces and five assists.
Hannah Mingle and McKenna Johnston both earned four aces, with Brooke Segars in charge of the front line thanks to her 10 kills and Madeline Howell adding four kills.
Meanwhile, the Warriors had to battle with Henninger in the first set, but then pulled away from the Black Knights 25-22, 25-15, 25-9.
Lexi Carfi produced 12 assists and Helen Nash was superb on defense with 24 digs. Sarah Ayling had a team-best nine kills and Veronica Detota gained five assists as Haley Miles had three kills.
