ONONDAGA COUNTY – Beginning the month of October, each of the area’s three high school girls volleyball teams had achieved fair degrees of success and wanted to keep it going.
Fayetteville-Manlius found itself at 6-1 and built upon that strong start last Monday against West Genesee, earning a 25-12, 25-16, 25-18 sweep of the Wildcats.
Kaylene Nobel had 13 kills and 13 digs, with Kalyna Dannenberg adding nine kills. Zoe Myint got 29 assists and 14 digs, helped by Rebekah Beasley’s 14 digs (to go with five kills) and Oksana Dannenberg’s 15 digs.
A day later, it was the Hornets handling Henninger 25-5, 25-14, 25-11, with seven assists from Myint and five kills from Nobel as Ava Zerillo and Emma Stoppeacher each picked up three aces, Kathryn McNany getting seven digs.
Yet when F-M challenged undefeated Baldwinsville on Thursday night, it went in a different direction, the Hornets unable to grab a set from the Bees in a 25-18, 25-20, 25-14 defeat.
Up front, Kalyna Dannenberg had nine kills and 11 digs, closely followed by Nobel (eight kills, nine digs) and Beasley (seven kills, five digs). Myint got 26 assists. B’ville’s Madison MacKaig had 22 assists passing it to Kyrah Wilbur, Madalyn Diep (seven kills each) and Amelia Hahn (six kills).
Jamesville-DeWitt found itself at 5-3 going into last Thursday’s match against Auburn, and put together a sweep of its own, topping the Maroons 25-13, 25-17, 27-25 in its only action last week.
Only the third set proved stressful for the Red Rams as Cadence Milligan, with 30 assists to go with four kills and three aces, fed it to a well-balanced front line.
Claire Trevisani had five kills, with Aaliyah Anderson getting four kills and four aces. Zamora McBride added three kills.
When Bishop Grimes took on its crosstown rivals from Bishop Ludden, it lost in three sets to the Gaelic Knights.
After a 25-17 loss in the first, the Cobras had a great chance to pull even, but dropped a tight second set 26-24, Ludden going on to take the third set 25-21.
Avery Burnette still picked up 13 kills for Grimes, Hannah Kinne adding four kills as Tori Coppola had 15 assists. Defensively, Tori Sikorski managed 20 digs as Burnette got 10 digs and Remy Cleland eight digs.
A far more frustrating defeat took place on Thursday against Cato-Meridian, with Grimes seemingly in control when it won the first two sets 25-19 and 25-21 and were close to a sweep in the third.
However, the Blue Devils took that third set 25-23 and seized the momentum, rolling through the fourth 25-15 and earning a 15-11 win in the final set.
Kayla Duenkel still had 13 kills for the Cobras, with Burnette adding 10 kills. Kinne got five kills and Saba Fasama four kills as Coppola earned 30 assists and Sikorski had 15 digs. Cleland again got eight digs.
Up against Living Word Academy on Saturday, Grimes was swept 25-18, 25-3, 25-11, its overall record dipping to 3-6