CAZENOVIA – When the third set of Wednesday night’s Section III Class B girls volleyball quarterfinal at Buckley Gym concluded, Cazenovia went to the sidelines and, as usual, changed ends for the next set.
At that point, the no. 4 seed Lakers trailed no. 5 seed Homer, who had just dominated the third set and, by doing so, put itself a set away from knocking out the hosts.
Cazenovia made sure that never happened, though, staging a spirited comeback and ultimately prevailing in five sets to earn a likely semifinal date against top seed and defending champion Westhill.
These team had met Sept. 19 in Cazenovia, the Lakers claiming a four-set decision, so it knew Homer was far from an easy opponent the way some others might face early in the sectional tournament.
And they were close in the opening set – but Cazenovia pulled it out 25-22, a necessary cushion given what would follow.
Effective with its serves and taking advantage of every Lakers mistake, the Trojans rolled through the second set 25-14 to get even. Then it was even better in the third, putting together long strings of points.
By the time they changed ends for the fourth, Cazenovia had to put a 25-8 defeat behind it in order to keep its season going. A tense fourth set followed, with Homer edging closer to victory.
Yet at just the right moment, the Lakers took a 24-23 lead, and with just one match point in the pocket, converted it, leading to a fifth-set race to 15 that didn’t prove as close.
By a score of 15-8, Cazenovia won that final set, and many different players could take credit for the comeback, led by Olivia Pirkl, who both led the defense with 25 digs and put away seven kills.
On the back line, Lucy Bliss and Becca Ziemba split the work, Bliss earning 15 assists and eight digs while Ziemba had matching totals of 14 assists and 14 digs.
Deep up front, the Lakers got eight kills and six digs from Sophie Reger. Mya Skeeler and Alyssa Wardell joined Pirkl with seven kills apiece as Audrey Wells contributed four digs. Homer was led by Mackenzie Hubbard’s 16 assists, 11 digs and seven kills as teammate Lily Sorenson put up 15 kills.
Now Cazenovia would try to dethrone Westhill in the sectional semifinal, with the winner to face Skaneateles or Marcellus in the sectional final next Saturday at 3:30 at Jamesville-DeWitt High School.
