In the last days before the school holiday break, girls volleyball teams from East Syracuse Minoa and Christian Brothers Academy earned victories.

The Spartans took on Utica Proctor last Thursday and endured a couple of tough sets, but still swept the Raiders 25-22, 25-16, 25-23 to reach the .500 mark at 3-3.

Alana Day led the way as she put together nine assists, four kills and four digs. Olivia Fortuno had eight kills, three blocks and three digs. Skyler Mahoney also got four kills and Morgan Ransom earned six assists, with Helena Scolaro earning four aces and Jazmin Tyo getting four assists.

Then ESM visited New Hartford last Monday, and in this Spartan clash the hosts got the best of it in four sets.

After dropping the first set 25-18, ESM won the second set 25-20 to pull even. Yet New Hartford absorbed this and controlled the rest of the match, winning the third set 25-10 and the fourth set 25-16.

As for CBA, it played last Friday at Cato-Meridian, taking only three sets to put away the Blue Devils 25-9, 25-16, 24. The Brothers improved to 4-1 overall and, after a tournament this Friday at Onondaga, will resume its league slate Jan. 6 at Faith Heritage.

Back on Dec. 16, ESM faced Cortland and lost in four sets to the Purple Tigers.

Cortland had roared out to a 5-0 start, highlighted by rallying from two sets down to knock off reigning sectional Class B champion Chittenango in five on Dec. 10. Not stopping there, the Purple Tigers swept CBA a day later and then, on Dec. 13, survived a comeback bid from Onondaga to claim another five-set decision.

So the ESM match was Cortland’s fourth in seven days, but it jumped all over the Spartans in 25-14 and 25-13 sets.

Recovering well from this, ESM did win the third set 25-13 to prolong the match, but with all of its starters back, the Purple Tigers closed it out 25-11 in the fourth.

Fortuno produced six kills for the Spartans, adding five assists and five digs. Day had seven assists and 10 digs, with Ransom getting 11 digs and Scolaro and Tyo getting seven digs apiece.

To lead Cortland, Grace Call produced 16 assists, her passes often going to Kayci Olson, who had nine kills. Lexi Zacek paced the Purple Tigers’ defense, earning nine digs.

ESM plays in  the Watertown Pink-Out Clash this weekend, and goes to another tournament at Mount Markham on Jan. 4 a day after a match against Camden.