ONONDAGA COUNTY – At least on the surface, the Baldwinsville girls volleyball team’s most important task was hosting and organizing its vast “Fall Fling” Tournament on the first Saturday of October.
However, the Bees put just as much energy and commitment to a single match last Monday night, which resulted in a three-set sweep over Cicero-North Syracuse.
It was, of course, the Northstars that shocked a short-handed B’ville squad in straight sets in last fall’s Section III Class AA semifinal, which turned out to be the last match for retiring head coach Mary Jo Cerqua.
Danielle Sayler’s Bees had started 5-0, and gone through a series of tournaments, before it ventured to C-NS, where in each of the first two sets it took C-NS’s best effort and still won by equal 25-20 margins.
A 25-10 third set ended matters as Madison MacKaig put up seven aces to go with her 22 assists, four digs and two blocks, with Sadie Phelps adding nine digs.
Kyrah Wilbur picked up 13 kills and seven digs, with Madelyn Diep earning eight kills, four aces and four digs and Amelia Hahn contributing four kills.
In a 25-7, 25-15, 25-8 sweep of Nottingham on Wednesday night, Madalyn Gulich served up seven aces to go with eight assists. Diep and Veronica Dorosh had four aces apiece as Sarah Coomes earned a team-best five kills.
When the Fall Fling Tournament arrived, B’ville was place in the “Gold” bracket, the top division, where it could not reach the finals as Penfield (Section V) beat Shenendehowa (Section II) for the title.
In other divisions, Liverpool topped Westhill to win the Silver bracket, with Skaneateles able to win the Bronze bracket by beating another Section V team, Geneva, in the finals.
Moving to boys volleyball, Baldwinsville challenged Fayetteville-Manlius last Tuesday night and nearly moved in front during a pivotal opening set.
But when the Bees lost that set 25-23, the Hornets took over, winning the next two sets 25-15 and 25-13 as Connor Sugar, with his 29 assists, passed it to Chris Cleary, who had 15 kills, and Charles Addonizio, who got seven kills.
B’ville then faced East Syracuse Minoa on Friday night, swept by the Spartans despite Brandon Micho’s 14 assists. Xzavier Vanderstouw had seven digs to go with five kills as Brayden Kudarauskas had five kills, four digs, two blocks and two aces. Justin Diep also had seven digs.
