CENTRAL NEW YORK – In its busiest stretch of the regular season, the East Syracuse Minoa girls volleyball team would play several matches in short order which would include its two biggest wins of the winter.
Against Chittenango, who started 9-0 this season before a mid-January defeat to Tully, the Spartans seemed to pick up all the important points and knocked off the Bears in five sets.
The match turned in the second set. Having lost the opener 25-21, ESM found itself two points from defeat in the second, only to tie it, 25-25, get the serve back and pull out that set 27-25.
With that momentum, the Spartans also won the third 25-22, and even though Chittenango took the fourth by that same score, the final-set race to 15 went in ESM’s favor by a 15-11 margin.
Balanced up front, the Spartans saw Margaret Mading and Camille Mitchell each get 14 kills, with Akuot Kuany adding 11 kills and four blocks. Passing to all of them, Natalie Peterson got 44 assists as Brooke Kirkpatrick had 11 digs and Francesca Cambareri six aces to go with seven digs.
As if that wasn’t enough, on Saturday ESM got a chance to avenge its five-set loss to Christian Brothers Academy on Jan. 17 and did so, prevailing in four sets over the Brothers.
Here, after winning the first set 25-17, the Spartans dropped the second 25-23 before rebounding to take the third set 25-20.
And there wouldn’t be a comeback this time, ESM claiming the fourth 25-15 as Kuany piled up 17 kills and five blocks, with Mading (nine kills) and Mitchell (seven kills) in support.
Peterson, with 37 assists, and Kirkpatrick, with 21 digs, anchored the Spartans’ back line as CBA, in defeat, got 13 kills from Carleagh Morgia, eight kills from Grace Catalano and 21 assists from Georgia Brown. Josie DePalma amassed 25 digs as Catalano and Morgia had eight digs apiece.
After it got swept Jan. 21 by Rome Free Academy, the Spartans prevailed in four last Monday against Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.
ESM won the first set 25-17 and lost a close second 26-24, but then claimed a tight third set 25-22 and closed out the Red Devils 25-16 in the fourth.
Peterson, with her 25 assists, often passed it to Mitchell, who had 13 kills, and Kuany, who got 12 kills. Mading added five kills as Kirkpatrick and Emily Murnane had eight digs apiece. Mading got seven digs as Francesca Cambareri had three aces and five digs.
Manlius Pebble Hill was back on the court last Tuesday to face Stockbridge Valley and, improving to 7-5 on the season, the Trojans swept the Cougars 25-13, 25-14, 25-23.
It was the same in Thursday’s match with Weedsport, except that this time the 25-23 decision came in the first set, MPH following with 25-14 and 25-12 romps to sweep past the Warriors.
