ONONDAGA COUNTY – By the time the Liverpool girls volleyball team made its way to Baldwinsville for Saturday’s Fall Fling Tournament, it had gone through two dramatic five-set battles, narrowly defeated in both.
However, where the Warriors had succeeded was against B’ville itself, pulling off a rare three-set sweep of the long-time powerhouse in front of a home crowd at the LHS gym last Thursday night.
It seemed like, after Liverpool won the opening set 25-20, any time there was an important point, the Warriors would grab it, not letting the Bees answer as it won a tight second set 26-24 and then completed the sweep 25-22 in the third.
Great defense helped, whether it was Madison Ames and Kylie Walker getting 12 digs, Allyson Crandall earning nine digs or the duo of Sophie Sageer and Sarah Daniel earning eight digs apiece.
Up front, Sageer had nine kills and Ames seven kills to go with three aces. Lauren Poland had four kills as Sarah LaTocha and Eliana Vangelov got three kills apiece. Feeding all of them, Crandall had 13 assists and Addie Tanton added 11 assists.
Having fallen in five to Fayetteville-Manlius on Sept. 20, Liverpool met the same fate last Monday night in a non-league match against its Warrior namesakes from Westhill.
Going into the match at 8-1, Westhill dominated the opening set 25-14, only to have Liverpool take charge in both the second and third sets, winning them by 25-18 and 25-20 margins.
In a tense fourth set, Liverpool closed in on victory, but Westhill, by a 25-23 margin, forced a final-set race to 15 that went beyond the wire.
Ultimately, Liverpool dropped that finale 17-15, despite having seen six different players record at least 10 digs, led by Vangelov’s 24 digs and Ames’ 21 digs. Tanton had 18 assists and Crandall got 17 assists, the pair combining for 21 digs.
Sageer and Poland led with 10 kills apiece, Sageer adding 16 digs. Ames had nine kills and LaTocha eight kills to go with four blocks as Vangelov had five kills.
A night later, Cicero-North Syracuse battled unbeaten West Genesee and, despite a huge comeback against the Wildcats, also lost in five sets.
Only 3-4 going into the match, the Northstars didn’t go away after WG took the first two sets by close 25-20 and 25-23 margins.
Instead, encouraged by the way it played in those sets, C-NS dominated the third 25-12 and then, in a tense fourth set, pulled it out 25-23, only to have the Wildcats regroup in the final set and win by a 15-10 margin.
Allison Navarra had 26 digs, Kendall Rumble 16 assists and Ellie Blumer 13 assists on the back line. Grace Murray got 11 kills, six digs and three aces, while Blumer and Piper Adams had seven kills apiece. Hannah George managed five kills and Gabrielle Penizotto matched Rumble’s four kills.
On WG’s side, Sonya Dunham managed 19 assists and 16 digs, with Sidney Hamilton earning 15 assists and eight digs as Colleen Barry got 17 digs. Claire DeVore, with 16 kills, led WG’s front line. Ella Bickering got eight kills and 18 digs.
