ONONDAGA COUNTY – All through the early portion of its schedule, the Cicero-North Syracuse girls volleyball team had tested itself in a series of tournaments.
The Northstars had already played in tournaments at Penfield and Fayetteville-Manlius before its first big SCAC Metro division match last Monday against West Genesee.
Steeled by those battles, the Northstars split the first two sets with the Wildcats, then took over to prevail in four 25-20, 24-26, 25-19, 25-22.
Maddy Howell’s six aces set the tone as she also got five kills. Madison Roche had eight kills and 10 digs, with Carley Overend adding seven kills and eight digs. Alita Carey-Santangelo got four kills.
Working on C-NS’s back line, Natalie Tice dished out 26 assists and, along with Overend and Maddy Manz, finished with eight digs. Karley Eymer gained nine digs.
For WG, Olivia Snyder amassed 34 assists, eight digs, five kills and four aces. Cami Zajac got 11 kills, six aces and 12 digs, while Cameron Rosenthal put away 17 kills and had 17 digs.
Then, against Fayetteville-Manlius two nights later, the Northstars dropped a close opening set 27-25, but rebounded to win the next two sets by equal 25-16 margins and then closed it out 25-20 in the fourth set to improve to 4-0.
Tice this time had 34 assists, adding six kills to help out a deep, well-balanced front line where Howell set the pace with her 13 kills and five blocks.
Overend earned 10 kills and six digs, with Carey-Santangelo adding nine kills and three blocks. Roche equaled Tice’s six kills as Karley Eymer managed five kills and 10 digs.
Liverpool had its own match against West Genesee that same Wednesday night, and it proved to be a close, tense battle that stretched to five sets before the Warriors pulled it out.
Having lost the opener 25-19, Liverpool roared back to take the next two sets 25-20 and 25-21. WG prolonged the match by winning the fourth 25-22, and it was close in the fifth set, too, but the Warriors, by that same 25-22 margin, ended on top.
Sophie Sageer managed 18 kills and 17 digs. Lola Sageer earned 17 kills, four aces and five blocks, with Lauren Poland getting four blocks and Tessa Gullo four kills as she also earned 17 digs.
Eliana Page’s defense produced 33 digs as, next to her, Addie Tanton got 13 assists and Allyson Crandall had 12 assists, the pair combining for 16 digs. On the Wildcats’ side, Sonya Dunham’s 36 assists led to 18 kills from Zajac, 13 kills from Rosenthal and 10 kills from Claire DeVore.
Prior to that, the Warriors swept Nottingham 25-5, 25-17, 25-11 last Monday, with Sophia Sageer getting seven kills and three aces. Crandall had six assists and five aces and Tanton four aces as Lola Sageer and Elliana Vangelov got four kills apiece.
Liverpool then would win its division at Saturday’s Central Square Tournament, beating West Genesee in the Gold division final to avenge its defeat to the Wildcats earlier in the week. And it did so with C-NS in the same field.
