GLOVERSVILLE – Even if the Baldwinsville girls volleyball team took an unfamiliar path to yet another Section III championship, what awaited them in the regional round was all too familiar to anyone who’s followed this program for any length of time.
And while the setting had changed from Class AA to the newly-formed Class AAA, it was still the Bees in a regional final against Section II’s Shenendehowa played Saturday at Gloversville High School.
As it turned out, the experience of the Plainsmen and its overall skill level again proved too much, with B’ville unable to prevent a three-set defeat.
Shen, on this occasion, was the reigning 2022 state Class AA champions, having swept B’ville in the regional round on the way to that title.
And any concern that the Plainsmen might take this group of Bees lightly based on its more unlikely sectional title run quickly dissipated in an opening set where Shen took it by a 25-16 margin.
The second set proved important. B’ville had some scoring runs, but not quite enough of them to even up the match. The Plainsmen prevailed 25-21, and went on to close out the match 25-19 in the third.
Finishing at 12-6 overall, the Bees could take plenty of comfort in the way it overcame all sorts of regular-season adversity to maintain its sectional championship streak.
Now seniors Ava Wickes, Maddy Gulich, Sadie Phelps, Nela Loftin and Sophia Connors will graduate, but plenty of talent will be back in 2024, including setter Madison MacKaig, Amelia Hahn and Mallory Offredi.
