Winning the Section III Class C championship in 2019 will always prove special to members of the Skaneateles girls volleyball team. How it was accomplished will be remembered for a lifetime for all who bore witness to it, players and fans alike.
With an epochal comeback, Skaneateles defeated Cazenovia in five sets in Friday night’s sectional final at Fayetteville-Manlius, rescuing itself several different times from what looked like certain defeat to pull it out.
In the third set, Skaneateles was down seven points and, twice, faced match point. Then in the fourth set, it trailed by 11 points. Each time, it roared back, won those sets and then played its best volleyball in the final set to claim the title at the expense of its Lakers rivals to the east.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” said head coach Dan Mulroy.
“It feels surreal,” said senior hitter Maeve Canty. “When we were down, we knew we had each other’s back and knew that one point at a time was all we needed.”
Of course, a whole lot of timely points were required in the wake of how things started.
Having not played a match in 17 days, Skaneateles would take quite a while to find a rhythm, and Cazenovia, though it had gone through its own 11-day break since beating Jordan-Elbridge in the semifinals, took full advantage.
Helped by some tremendous serving, Cazenovia rattled off seven consecutive points at two different times in the opening set, building a 20-7 margin and, though Skaneateles did make up some ground, it dropped that first set 25-16.
Recovering from another 7-0 run by Cazenovia early in the second set, Skaneateles eventually broke a 22-22 tie and, at 24-22, had a pair of set points. But Cazenovia negated both of them and then scored two more points to claim that set 26-24.
Such a turn of events appeared to cripple Skaneateles, as evidenced by the other Lakers sprinting out in front 13-6 in the third set. Mulroy said he was getting discouraged when Canty ran over and told him to pick up his spirits.
Aided in no small part by great serves from Kristen Henry, Skaneateles made up the ground, setting up a remarkable final sequence in that set where, again, it led 24-22 and, again, missed out on two set points.
In fact, Cazenovia, at 26-25 and 27-26, twice had match points to end it in a sweep. Both times, Skaneateles survived and, by a 29-27 margin, kept the match alive.
Such survival seemed a consolation prize when, again serving well, Cazenovia roared out to a 16-5 advantage in the fourth set. But just like in the third set, Henry’s serves produced an 8-0 Skaneateles run, and things were close again.
Still trailing 21-19, Skaneateles used a timeout. It got the serve back and, with Canty now offering strong deliveries, reeled off five straight points, eventually taking the set 25-22 and sending this championship match to a fifth set.
The two Lakers sides went back and forth for most of that last set, with eight early ties. But at 13-13, Skaneateles put together a 7-1 run and never got caught. Fittingly, Henry closed it out with an ace on match point.
“We knew we had the ability,” said Mulroy. “At the end, we finally put it together.”
Canty, who finished with 21 kills, three blocks, four aces and 23 digs, gave high praise to both Henry, who had eight aces and nine kills, and setter Emma Keady, who earned 34 assists after taking over late in the season for the injured Lily Delasin.
Mulroy echoed that praise, saying that Keady was reluctant at first to claim the setter’s role, but never complained and, through hard work and plenty of practice developing her rhythm with Keady, settled in – as she showed in the comeback against Cazenovia.
Keady also finished with 12 digs and Henry earned 16 digs, with Alex Csemez getting 12 digs and Emma Miller finishing with 17 digs. Rory Comer had six dig sand Stella Zang produced seven kills and seven digs.
And next Saturday at 5 p.m. at Jamesville-DeWitt, the Lakers will take on the Section V/VI champion in the Class C regional final, with a berth in the Nov. 23-24 state final four in Glens Falls on the line.
