ONONDAGA COUNTY – All along, the Liverpool girls volleyball team had to know that winning the first-ever Section III Class AAA championship would require one more conquest of a Baldwinsville side that conquered them so much over the years.
Yet what transpired last Friday night at Jamesville-DeWitt High School only added to a long history of frustration for the Warriors, who fell in four sets to a Bees side it beat three different times in the regular season.
Between two league matches and one tournament clash, Liverpool had used its power and depth to subdue B’ville, and it jumped out 5-0 in the opening set of the sectional final, the season’s pattern appearing permanent.
The Bees battled back, though, ultimately pushing the set beyond the limit. The Warriors took that set 27-25, but B’ville’s resolve was already on display, and in close second and third sets the Bees earned all of the crucial points to take those sets 25-20 and 25-21.
Then, perhaps summoning the spirit of all those great B’ville teams of the past, it pulled away in the fourth set to win it 25-15 and again earn a sectional title, led by Mallory Offredi’s 19 kills and Madison MacKaig’s 39 assists.
It almost wasn’t a Liverpool-B’ville sectoinal final. Cicero-North Syracuse battled for five sets in last Monday’s sectional AAA semifinal before the Bees pulled it out.
Only 6-9 going into the match, the no. 3 seed Northstars responded well to a 25-14 defeat in the opening set, surviving several set points in the second set to take it 28-26 and then pulling out the third set 25-23.
Things turned from there, though. The Bees pulled away 25-18 in the fourth set and, in a final-set race to 15, claimed it 15-12 to make another sectional final.
Grace Murray, with her 11 kills and nine digs, led C-NS, Grace Schmid adding five kills and eight digs as Grace Turrell got four kills and three blocks.
Ellie Blumer finished with 12 assists and 10 digs. Payton LaMott put together seven assists, three blocks and two kills as Kendall Rumble managed four assists. Piper Adams and Gabby Penizotto had three kills apiece.
By contrast, Liverpool rolled past Henninger in the other semifinal, taking it in three sets 25-10, 25-15, 25-9 as Lauren Poland established the tone by putting away 10 aces to go with her three kills.
Sophie Sageer added four aces to go with her four kills. Elliana Vangelov got four kills, Nya Pedrosa adding three kills as Addie Tanton and Allyson Crandall earned seven assists apiece, the Warriors showing no sign that it would all turn against them thanks to B’ville’s latest championship effort.
