CENTRAL NEW YORK – Each of the area’s high school boys volleyball teams are getting quite accustomed to seeing their matches come down to those fifth-set races to 15 points, even against one another.
Fayetteville-Manlius, who knocked off then-unbeaten Cicero-North Syracuse in such circumstances on Sept. 29, had to stage its own comeback from a two-set deficit to beat East Syracuse Minoa last Monday night.
Despite a 3-5 record and getting swept by the Hornets on Sept. 11, the Spartans got the jump in this match, winning each of the first two sets by scores of 25-19 and 25-21.
On the brink of defeat, F-M pulled out the third set 25-23 and picked up momentum from there, handling the fourth set 25-17 and then taking the final set 15-11.
James Addonizio finished with 31 assists, with most of his passes going to Chris Cleary, who earned 22 kills plus four blocks. Davin Woolridge had five kills, with Andrew Li adding four kills and a team-best eight digs.
F-M then handled Syracuse City two nights later, though it lost the second set 25-23 after a 25-20 win in the opening set.
Claiming the next two sets 25-14 and 25-19, the Hornets got 19 kills from Cleary and 12 kills from Li, with Addonizio steadily amassing 42 assists and Aden Pollock earning seven digs.
Taking on Living Word Academy on Saturday, the Hornets won the opening set 25-22 but then lost the next two sets by those same scores.
And even though it prolonged the match by taking a tense fourth set 27-25, F-M lost the final set 15-8 to the Lions, who got 52 assists from Matt Rudisky, 20 kills from Riddick Robinson and 14 kills from Tim Plewak.
Li still got 13 kills to pace the Hornets’ front line as Addonizio picked up 14 assists and nine kills, with Duggal getting 13 kills and Danaher adding six kills. Pollock again had seven digs.
ESM went from the loss to F-M to a 25-15, 25-14, 25-10 defeat to C-NS last Wednesday. Cole Thomas still had eight kills, with Aiden Betts and Jayce Domres both had five kills. Jacob Franklin up 19 assists, adding three kills and four digs as Cole Thomas recorded eight digs.
Things improved for the Spartans on Friday when it beat Syracuse in four sets 25-21, 25-18, 12-25, 25-19, with Franklin remaining steady as he earned 20 assists and Dormes had seven digs.
In a fine all-around performance, Thomas notched 12 kills, 10 digs and three aces, with Ben Clappin gaining seven kills. Domres had four kills as Jacob Sehn (six digs) and Don Hamilton (five digs) helped on the defensive side.
Away from all this, Jamesville-DeWitt had just one match last week, against Oswego, where it split the first two sets, each of them by 20-20 margins, but then claimed the next two sets 25-16 and 25-20 to win the match.
Aidan Bates put together 14 assists and 11 kills, with Avery Tyson adding 10 kills, seven blocks and six digs. Matt Keeler earned 26 assists as Michael Ryan (five kills) and Nick Dekaney (four kills) helped, too.
