CENTRAL NEW YORK – A special season is unfolding for the Christian Brothers Academy girls volleyball team as it evolves into a championship contenders.
Having won seven in a row since it opened with a Dec. 1 defeat to Tully, the Brothers were in trouble in last Monday’s match against Faith Heritage, only to rally and beat the Saints in five sets.
CBA won the opener 25-21, only to have Faith Heritage claim a close second set 25-23 and then dominate the third, 25-13, to get closer to its own signature win.
Instead, the Brothers pulled away in the fourth, 25-19, and with great serves in a final-set race to 15 points ended up taking that set 15-3 to keep its month-long win streak alive.
Carleah Morgia amassed 10 kills, five aces, two blocks and four digs, while Grace Catalano had nine kills and three aces, also getting four digs. Abby Uryniak chimed in with six kills.
Leading CBA’s back line, Georgia Brown produced 24 assists, helped by Josie DePalma, who had eight digs. Faith Heritage was led by Abby Henderson’s 12 kills and 17 digs as Anna Dow produced 20 assists.
This led to Thursday night’s rematch with Tully, and right away the Black Knights asserted control, rolling through a 25-10 opening set.
Though CBA played better in the two sets that followed, it still lost them 25-19 and 25-21, seeing Alexa Shay earn 19 assists and 12 digs for Tully passing it to Keagan Usherwood (seven kills), Catherine Lund (six kills) and Samantha Garback (five kills) as Lund got 15 digs and Catherine Kowalewski 13 digs.
As that went on, Manlius Pebble Hill met Onondaga and, after a rough opening set where it lost 25-15, swept the Tigers 25-13, 25-10 and 25-16 in the next three sets.
Lyv Burdin had 14 kills, adding four aces and nine digs.Gianna Rinaldi had five aces and three kills, Abby Hinshaw getting 11 digs as Kate Chaffee amassed 22 assists and Ava Halbritter had six digs.
Back on Monday, East Syracuse Minoa met up with reigning sectional Class A winter champion New Hartford and dropped this battle of Spartan sides in three sets 25-22, 25-16, 25-19.
Competitive most of the way, ESM got eight kills from Akuot Kuany and Margaret Mading, 20 assists from Natalie Peterson and 13 digs from Brooke Kirkpatrick. But New Hartford improved to 9-1 as Abby O’Connor’s 22 assists fed Makenzie Desmarais (11 kills) and Elise Courto (10 digs) as both added 10 digs.
Against Utica Proctor on Wednesday, ESM again needed just three sets, though putting away the Raiders required close 25-23 decisions in both the first and third with a 25-19 win in the second in between.
With her 22 assists, Peterson fed it to a well-balanced front line where Camille Mitchell stepped up with 10 kills to help Mading (seven kills) and Emily Murnane (six kills). Kirkpatrick managed 13 digs.
Then it was ESM’s turn to face Tully on Friday and, while it avoided a sweep by winning the third set and pushed hard in the fourth, it still could not stop the Black Knights in a 25-21, 25-18, 25-27, 25-21 defeat.
Kuany still finished with 17 kills and six digs, with Mading adding 10 kills and seven digs. Mitchell had seven kills as Peterson set a season mark with 39 assists, helped on defense by Kirkpatrick’s 21 digs and Murnane’s 12 digs.
