CENTRAL NEW YORK – Mid-February means that, for the Chittenango girls volleyball team, it was time to take a central role in the Section III Class B playoffs and try to win another banner.
With its 13-2 regular-season mark, the Bears drew the top seed in the 10-team field and, after a first-round bye, faced no. 9 seed Holland Patent in the quarterfinals after the Golden Knights ousted Adirondack.
It didn’t prove too difficult as Chittenango swept HP 25-17, 25-16, 25-13, improving as the match went along. Taylor Streiff and Julia Spencer each had five kills, with Rachel Gilbert getting four kills as Anna Spencer had 12 assists.
This advances the Bears to the sectional semifinal against no. 5 seed Oneida, who beat Clinton in the quarterfinals. The winner here gets Christian Brothers Academy or Camden in this Saturday’s final at Watertown.
In last Monday’s regular-season finale against CBA, the Bears roared through the first set 25-7, only to see the Brothers take the second 25-20 and pull even.
Regrouping, Chittenango won the next two sets 25-17 and 25-15 led by Alex Sylstra’s 19 assists and 17 digs and, up front, the work of Stephanie Huckabee, who had 13 kills and 12 digs.
Gilbert finished with six kills, six blocks and 14 digs. Also strong on defense, Spencer had 14 digs to go with nine assists and four kills. Cara Kielbasa had 11 digs and Streiff 10 digs to go with three kills.
Away from all this, Chittenango’s unbeaten boys volleyball team returned from a week’s rest and won again last Thursday night, sweeping Rome Free Academy 25-19, 25-12, 25-22.
Trevor Cole, with 15 kills, paced the Bears up front. Micah Alpuerto had nine kills, with Landon Parks and Jackson Blaszkow getting six kills apiece and Cole Thomas piling up 35 assists.
This was the first of three matches in a span of less than 48 hours, with Chittenango getting its toughest tests of the season against Rome Free Academy on Friday and Canastota on Saturday, but winning each of them in five sets.
RFA won its opening set 25-18 and then, after the Bears won the second 25-17, it emerged from a tense third set with a 27-25 win.
Yet that drained the Black Knights, for in the fourth set Chittenango rolled to a 25-9 and, in the final-set race to 15, was able to hang on by a 15-13 margin.
Thomas, with a season-best 52 assists plus 13 digs, passed to a front line where Alpuerto had 18 kills and 12 digs, with Cole getting 16 kills and 16 digs. Blaszkow added 10 kills as Lawson Pagorek amassed 34 digs and Roger Mulholland had 16 digs to go with five kills.
At Canastota, a 25-8 Bears romp in the first set got negated by the Raiders taking the second 25-19. Then Chittenango won the third 25-18 but could not quite close it out in the fourth, Canastota averting match points in a 26-24 decision.
Chittenango would take over in the final set, though, and win 15-9, Landon Parks earning 21 kills and Cole adding 10 kills in front of Thomas, who had 34 assists, six aces, six digs, three kills and three blocks. Pagorek had 13 digs and Mulholland 12 digs to go with five kills.
