CENTRAL NEW YORK – When it wasn’t expected at all, the Cicero-North Syracuse boys volleyball team climbed back to the top of the area Division I ranks in 2023.
Despite six regular-season defeats, two of them to the Fayetteville-Manlius side that took the sectional title from them in 2022, the Northstars won the match that counted, sweeping the Hornets in the Section III finals.
Now back in its familiar role of defending a sectional title, C-NS would play three times in four days to open the season, sharing with rival Liverpool a match against Baldwinsville during that stretch.
The Warriors’ match with the Bees proved a classic, stretching to five sets before Liverpool pulled it out.
A close first set went 28-26 in B’ville’s favor. Answering well, Liverpool dominated the second set 25-11 and then won the third set 25-19 to take the lead.
And even when the Bees pulled out a tense fourth set 25-23, it was the Warriors, in the final-set race to 15, getting the lead and hanging on 15-11, led by the duo of Jack DeForge and Kellen Conway.
DeForge earned nearly a full set of points through his 23 kills, the passes coming from Conway, who earned 38 assists as Sean Frawley got 10 kills, four aces and six digs. Amaree Burton had five kills, while Chase Loveless managed 11 digs and Gianni DeFrancesco got six digs and three aces.
Meanwhile, C-NS was sweeping Central Square 25-14, 25-17, 25-15, a strong opening statement that featured the team’s depth on both the front and back lines.
Dylan Fournier, with 11 assists, and Grady Kennedy, with 10 assists, passed up to the net where Ryan Leahey, Kevin Greer and Phillip Greer each produced five kills and Joey Lukasiewicz earned four kills. Ryan Hill added three kills as Jack Copeland produced eight digs and Max Wolanski five digs.
Then the Northstars met B’ville and, while pushed in the first two sets, still swept the Bees 25-22, 25-20, 25-16, again with balance on its back line as once more Fournier had 11 assists and Kennedy 10 assists.
More pronounced, though, was Leahey on the front line as his nine kills led the way. Copeland added five kills, with Wolanski earning eight digs and Landon Coyle seven digs to go with four aces.
Liverpool got its own sweep over Oswego 25-19, 25-17, 25-19 that same night. Keagan Misencik earned 12 assists to give some rest to Conway, who still managed 16 assists as DeForge put away 14 kills and Frawley had eight kills. Shahidullah Sahak finished with a team-best 12 digs.
Before all this, on Sept. 7 Liverpool had opened with a 25-16, 25-16, 25-22 win over Section V’s Brockport.
With his 27 assists, Conway fed a front line where Frawley earned 10 kills, just ahead of Loveless and DeForge with nine kills apiece. DeForge added a team-best 14 digs, Loveless adding nine digs and Frawley seven digs. Ben McHerron and James Kelly each got four kills.
Closing out a busy week, C-NS met Midlakes (Section V) on Friday and took its first defeat of the season, a 25-11, 25-19, 25-27, 25-17 decision where the Northstars barely averted a sweep and saw Kennedy, with 19 assists, and Fournier with 10 assists feed a front line where Leahey had 10 kills and Copeland added nine kills.
Liverpool swept Port Washington that same night 27-25, 25-23, 25-20, getting most of the important points late in the first two sets as Conway had 16 assists, helped by Keagan Misecnik’s eight assists. DeForge’s 10 kills led a well-balanced front line where Frawley managed eight kills, Loveless seven kills and James Kelly five kills.
