ONONDAGA COUNTY – For the Liverpool girls volleyball team, the end of September and the start of October were close to ideal.
First there was a sweep of archrival Cicero-North Syracuse. Then there was a victory in the Silver Bracket of the Baldwinsville Fall Swing Tournament, with Liverpool knocking off Westhill, the state’s top-ranked Class B side, in the championship round.
But the real test would come head-to-head when Liverpool went back to B’ville last Tuesday to face the Bees, a team it lost to in four sets back in the Sept. 6 season opener.
On the one hand, the result didn’t matter as much as the cause both teams worked together to celebrate as they had the “Dig Pink” event to raise money and awareness for breast cancer research.
But in terms of confidence, Liverpool wanted to make a dent in B’ville’s momentum – and could not do so, taking a 25-13, 25-16, 25-20 loss to the Bees.
That lopsided opening set established a tone and, while the Warriors improved, it never got close to extending the match, seeing Lola Sageer and Sophia Sageer each get five kills and combine for 21 digs. Addie Tanton had 12 digs to go with 14 assists.
Between her 17 kills and six digs, Kyrah Wilbur was responsible for nearly a full set’s worth of B’ville points all by herself, with Amelia Hahn getting 10 kills as Madison MacKaig picked up 37 assists and Sadie Phelps got 18 digs.
Just before this, Liverpool swept Central Square 25-12, 25-21, 25-23 last Monday night, the start of a week where it would play four times in six days.
After the loss to B’ville, the Warriors routed Nottingham 25-7, 25-6, 25-10 on Friday, with seven aces from Eliana Page as Tanton earned eight assists and Lola Sageer five assists to go with three kills and three aces. Mya Vallat had four kills.
C-NS had recovered well from its Liverpool defeat, nearly shutting out Corcoran in each of the first two sets of last Monday night’s 25-3, 25-1, 25-22 sweep of the Cougars.
Lauren Capone picked up seven of the Northstars’ 25 aces. Maddy Howell got six aces to go with four kills as Carly Overend had five aces and Karley Eymer three kills. Marissa Baker picked up 15 assists.
But when the Northstars faced West Genesee on Thursday, everything reversed itself, the Northstars on the wrong end of a 25-18, 25-11, 25-21 defeat.
Other than Howell, who had six kills, no one else had more than three kills. Baker got 12 assists and Allison Navarra nine digs as the Wildcats got nine kills from Cami Zajac, 16 assists from Olivia Snyder and 11 assists from Sonya Dunham.
