ALBANY – Jamesville-DeWitt has a long and deep legacy of winning state championships, though that usually has involved basketball or lacrosse teams.
Now, though, boys volleyball is added to that pantheon.
J-D not only claimed the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Division II championship Saturday at Albany’s Capital Center, it did so in dominant fashion, sweeping Section V’s Spencerport in the championship round.
“It’s such a surreal feeling,” said senior captain Michael Ryan, saying that the full impact wouldn’t hit him until his team left Albany and returned home.
“My best friends in the world are on this team,” said senior captain Aaron Ko. “Seeing them every day, and being able to achieve this, is something I will never forget.”
NYSPHSAA has conducted state boys volleyball tournaments since 2010. In that time, no Section III school had ever gone to the top, including the Red Rams, who got this far in 2019.
“It’s great when you can show the boys that, when you work hard for something, it can pay off,” said head coach Matt Cline, noting his team’s extensive off-season program that led to this moment.
J-D was one of three teams going into round-robin play, joining Spencerport and Long Island’s Hauppauge. They would play four sets of round robin, with the top two finishers advancing.
All but sealing its spot in the final, J-D took both sets from Spencerport 25-18 and 25-17. Then it won the first set 25-19 over Hauppauge, and rested key players during a second set it lost 26-24.
Since Spencerport swept Hauppauge in a pair of 25-19 sets, it was the Red Rams and Eagles that would square off for the state title.
With a large crowd of its fans on hand, J-D tore through the opening set 25-14, putting up seven straight points to pull away after grabbing a 10-7 advantage.
Then, in a pivotal second set, the two sides traded mini-surges, the Red Rams never leading by more than three points. At 24-24, J-D got back the serve and won the set when Avery Kielbasinski put a spike into the unoccupied corner.
From there, the third set saw J-D again grab a modest lead and keep it until pulling away to close out Spencerport 25-18.
Luke McQuaid, with his 17 kills, paced the Red Rams’ front line. Ko and Kielbasinski each earned seven kills, with Ryan serving up five aces and Cooper dishing out 30 assists.
Defensively, Ko led with 10 digs, Aidan Bates adding six digs as Kielbasinski got two blocks and two aces.
Ryan said that, as much fun as his team had off the court, they were serious on the court – and translated that focus into a state title.
Having finished 20-2, J-D will see Ryan, Bates and Kielbasinski graduate, but return Ko, McQuaid and Cooper in 2023. Between them, McQuaid and Ko had 426 kills and 66 aces as Cooper got 644 assists.
