With Section III championships secured, both of the Jamesville-DeWitt volleyball teams now sought their first-ever state championships but, to do so, had to pass major tests against the same common opponent in last Saturday’s regional finals.
At Fayetteville-Manlius in the evening, the boys Red Rams managed to outlast Section II’s Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake in a five-set epic, partially atoning for the J-D girls getting swept by those same Spartans on its home court earlier that afternoon.
The fact that the boys Red Rams did prevail was not foreseen, especially after an opening set where, nervous and edgy, J-D was overwhelmed by Burnt Hills 25-14.
It was the second set that turned everything around. Both sides made runs, and the Spartans nearly seized a two-set advantage, but at 26-26 the Rams won back the serve and then got the point it needed to win 28-26 and pull even.
Without those clutch points, it may have ended, since Burnt Hills used touch and poise to comfortably win the third set 25-17. Once again, J-D found a way back, this time gaining a big lead in the fourth set and claiming it by that same 25-17 margin.
With the season at stake, J-D played its best volleyball in the final-set race to 15, grabbing a lead and never letting go of it. By a score of 15-9, the Rams earned a berth in the state championship tournament.
For the J-D girls, the good news was that it was on its home court. The bad news was that Burnt Hills, long a powerhouse with six state titles on its resume, was the opposition.
And it was never close, with the Spartans claiming the first set 25-15 and then running over the Red Rams 25-9 in the second set. A 25-12 third set gave Burnt Hills yet another regional title and ended J-D’s season.
Yet the boys Red Rams go on, and this Saturday at Albany’s Capital Center it will take on two other regional champions – one from Western New York, the other from Long Island. They’ll have a round robin starting at 10 a.m., with the best two teams advancing to a championship match at 3 p.m.
