ONONDAGA COUNTY – Not quite able to get to the top in the Gold division of its own invitational tournament on Oct. 2, the Baldwinsville girls volleyball team returned to league action, where it was still undefeated.
Two big matches loomed last week, starting Tuesday with a trip to Liverpool that, once again, demonstrated just how difficult it is to topple the Bees in a best-of-five situation.
Roaring through the opening set 25-12, B’ville got challenged in the second as the Warriors nearly pulled even, only to see the Bees take that set 25-23.
Then a 25-14 third set followed, with the visitors seeing Madison MacKaig accumulate 31 assists to go with three kills and a pair of aces.
Madelyn Diep, with 13 kills and five digs, led the Bees’ front line. Gianna May had six kills, while Jayda Pyle got five kills and Erin Gregoire had four kills. Kathryn AuClair earned eight digs, Eva Pawelek six digs and Maddie Phelps five digs.
Then it was the Bees against Fayetteville-Manlius two nights later, the match defined by an epochal second set that propelled B’ville to ultimately defeat the Hornets in four.
Having won the opener 25-16, the Bees found itself trading points with F-M for a long time in the second, with nine set points on both sides averted before, at 33-33, B’ville gained the serve and then won it 35-33.
All of this helped the Bees weather a 25-21 loss in the third set before winning the fourth 25-17, helped by a front line that was back at full strength, led by MacKaig, who notched a season-best 11 kills to go with 38 assist.
Kyrah Wilbur returned and matched May’s total of 14 kills, adding three blocks and eight digs. Diep had 10 kills and 12 digs, with Phelps and AuClair each adding nine digs. F-M got 41 assists and 16 digs from Zoe Myint as Kaylene Nobel earned 17 kills and 21 digs.
After it rallied to beat Central Square in five sets to end an eight-match skid on Oct. 1, the Baldwinsville boys volleyball team looked to build upon that effort.
But the Bees lost in three sets to Syracuse City last Monday night. Brendan Micho had 13 assists and Brayden Kudarauskas got seven digs, with Nick Helbig earning six kills. Mason Thai led Syracuse with five kills and 14 assists.
Then it was B’ville against the two leaders in the SCAC Metro division, Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse, with sweeps taking place in both matches.
The 25-16, 25-11, 25-12 loss to the Warriors included Liam Ramsey getting five kills and Zach Treacher four kills in front o f Micho, who gained 13 assists. Ramsey added three aces.
C-NS was next, on Friday night, and B’ville fell to the Northstars 25-13, 25-10, 25-20. Caleb Way finished with six kills, just ahead of Helbig’s five kills and Gibson Boudov’s four kills as Micho got 15 assists and Kudarauskas had six digs.
