Perfection has marked the run of the Cicero-North Syracuse boys volleyball team in 2019, which makes it special beyond the latest Section III Division I championship it has put on its ledger.
The Northstars defeated Liverpool in last Saturday’s sectional title match at Jamesville-DeWitt, though the match proved a bit anticlimactic in the wake of an epochal semifinal at C-NS two nights earlier where the Warriors fought off no. 3 seed Baldwinsville.
Every run by one side was met by another throughout the semifinal, starting in the first set, where Liverpool did just enough to edge the Bees 25-23. Then, in the longest set for either team this fall, both sides squandered multiple set points before B’ville took it 32-30.
They continued to go back and forth, Liverpool pulling out the third set 25-21, but B’ville taking the third set 25-22, so the season hung on a fifth-set race to 15 points.
Only by the slightest 15-13 margin did the Warriors prevail and end the Bees’ season, with Quinn Moore leading the way as he got 29 assists, 16 digs, two kills, two aces and two blocks.
Anthony Pezzino finished with 12 kills and 12 digs, while Elliott DeForge had eight kills and two blocks. Defensively, Jagger Alberici picked up 27 digs as Jackson Furr had 10 digs and Nolan Feldt earned eight digs, plus a pair of aces.
The only problem was that the Warriors had less than 48 hours to recuperate before the sectional final against a C-NS side against which it had not claimed a set in two previous regular-season encounters.
And it wouldn’t do so here, either.
It wasn’t for a lack of effort, for the Warriors fought hard in each of the first two sets, only to have the Northstars get away and claim them by 25-17 and 25-16 margins.
The third set also went 25-16 in C-NS’s favor as it won its 21st onsecutive match, earning a trip back to the state tournament, where it will play a regional final against the Section I-II champion Saturday night at Fayetteville-Manlius.
Kevin Felasco put away 16 kills, helped on the front line by Dan Seliger, who had 12 kills. Libero Trace LaRobardiere finished with 10 digs as he worked well again with setter Brandon Millias.
Before this, C-NS first had to turn back no. 4 seed Fayetteville-Manlius in last Wednesday’s semifinals. And the second set was stressful, but the Northstars claimed it 25-22 in between 25-14 romps in the first and third sets for yet another sweep.
Seliger put away 17 kills, while Felasco had eight kills, John Hendry six kills and Grant Sennett and Carter Wisely five kills apiece. Feeding all of them, Millias earned 35 assists as LaRobardiere finished with 11 digs.
Over in girls volleyball, C-NS held the no. 2 seed, but a home-court advantage did not mean much as no. 3 seed F-M eliminated the Northstars in four sets in last Wednesday’s sectional Class AA semifinal.
After dropping the first set 25-13, C-NS did play a strong second set and won it 25-19. Yet the Hornets regained control with a 25-16 decision in the third and just kept the Northstars from pushing the match to the wire by taking the fourth 25-23.
Brooke Segars still had 12 kills and 17 digs, with Aurora Lesinski adding nine kills. Adriana Houston had five kills and Emma Koening four kills as Jennifer Carl got 24 assists and four aces. Cassidy Ormond earned 10 assists, with Hannah Mingle adding 15 digs.
For F-M, Morgan Napier, earning 40 assists, passed to a well-balanced front line. Kendra Broddus earned 12 kills, with Harper Stoppacher adding 11 kills. Juliana Myagkota and Mackenzie Helmer had eight kills apiece.
So the C-NS girls had its season end –but the boys Northstars, intent on getting the program’s first-ever state championship, must win a regional match Saturday at 7 p.m. at F-M’s gym against whoever wins the Section I-Section II match the night before.