CENTRAL NEW YORK – Week after week and win after win, the Chittenango boys volleyball team remains the standard among Central New York winter sides, undefeated and rarely facing a serious challenge.
Even when one seemed at hand last Friday night against 8-0 Central Valley Academy, the Bears were able to turn it back, beating the Thunder in three sets.
A close first set went 25-22 in Chittenango’s favor. The second set ended 25-17, and when CVA pushed in the third, it still couldn’t extend the contest as the Bears closed it out 27-25.
Between 24 assists, seven kills and seven digs, Cole Thomas led an effort where Ryan Thousand had 11 kills and 11 digs. Rodger Mulholland equaled Thomas with seven kills and earned nine digs as Jackson Blaszkow had six kills and 10 digs. Jacob Wagner got five kills as he and Andrew Uryniak earned six digs apiece.
A night earlier, Chittenango swept Vernon-Verona-Sherrill 25-14, 25-19, 25-4, nearly getting a third-set shutout.
Mulholland earned six aces, a season high, to go with nine kills, four assists and five digs. Thomas added three aces as he got 34 assists and 13 digs, while Thousand pounded out 18 kills. Wagner had four kills and two aces, Blaszkow adding three kills.
That hasn’t proven the case, though, for the Chittenango girls, whose rough stretch began last Wednesday night in the course of a three-set defeat to East Syracuse Minoa.
This wasn’t a big surprise, though. A week earlier, ESM had handed Camden its first defeat of the season after it roared past Christian Brothers Academy, and it stayed hot here.
All match long, the Spartans proved talented enough that, during one rally, Leah Rehm kept a rally alive with a backwards kick, fitting given her stardom in soccer.
The 25-10, 25-20, 25-17 score reflected this dominance, Rehm earning 17 digs and Kristina Levkovich leading with nine assists to go with three aces and five digs. Brooke Kirkpatrick got seven assists and four digs, while up front Akuot Kuany earned 10 kills, four blocks and two aces.
On the Bears’ side, Sydney Martin was held to six assists. Stephanie Huckabee had four kills, with Julia Spencer, Ally Smith and Alex Sylstra getting three kills apiece, Sylstra adding six digs behind Smith’s nine digs and Spencer’s eight digs.
After all this, Chittenango would, back on its home court, try to bounce back 24 hours later against the same CBA side it lost to less than two weeks earlier, on Jan. 12.
But the Brothers prevailed again, taking the first set 25-21 and what turned out to be a pivotal second set 26-24, which allowed CBA to withstand Chittenango winning the third 25-17 and then rally to win a tense fourth set 25-22, led by Carleah Morgia’s 28 kills, Josie Lachut’s 43 digs and Josie DePalma’s 22 digs.
For the Bears, Spencer earned 12 kills and 13 digs, with none of her teammate earning more than two kills. Huckabee and Smith both had 12 digs, Sylstra getting 10 digs and five assists as Martin had seven assists and seven digs. Carolne Litman also had seven digs.
This skid continued Saturday with a three-set defeat to Camden, who won a close opening set 27-25 and then took each of the next two sets by equal 25-20 margins.
Spencer still had 11 kills and 10 digs, with Huckabee getting seven kills and 19 digs. Smith and Caroline Litman had 11 digs apiece as Martin earned 12 assists and Sylstra eight assists. Smith contributed three aces as the Blue Devils’ Julia Holmes, with 30 assists, fed it to Hailey Gladle (15 kills, five blocks) and Olivia Hooker (10 kills).
