CENTRAL NEW YORK – After four consecutive victories to open the 2024 season, the Bishop Ludden girls volleyball team finally had a blemish in last Monday night’s three-set loss to Hamilton.
In the Gaelic Knights’ 25-12, 25-21, 25-20 defeat to the Emerald Knights Tiz’Ariah Billue did earn six kills and Sophia Rivera had five assists, with Grace Hilton (eight digs) and Abby Mossotti (five digs) pacing the defense. Cameron Cleveland paced Hamilton with 10 kills and 13 digs, Alivya Packer adding 13 assists.
Still, Ludden recovered on Friday to beat Hannibal in four close sets, taking the opener 25-22 and losing the second 25-23 before earning its own 25-23 win in the third and then closing it out 25-21 in the fourth.
Natalie Testa managed 11 assists and Rivera earned eight assists, the passes often going to Billue, who put away 11 kills. Hilton led the defense with 10 digs.
West Genesee played just its second match of the season last Monday against Fayetteville-Manlius, falling in four sets to the Hornets.
After losing the opening set 25-20, the Wildcats won the second 25-17. A 25-16 defeat in the third nearly got negated, too, but F-M pulled out the fourth 26-24 to end the match.
Sidney Hamilton finished with 15 assists and Eliana Becker had 11 assists. Hollis Pfeiffer gained 21 digs, helped on defense by Lizzie Dunham (12 digs) and Maddie Cook (10 digs) as Isabella Vallely got 10 kills, Celia Spicer nine kills and Miley Ginty seven kills. Norah Emery picked up four kills.
Two nights later, WG earned its first win of the season, sweeping Henninger as it got the first and third sets by 25-14 margins with a 25-20 second set in between.
Vallely went to the forefront with eight kills as Ginty picked up four kills. Spicer added three kills as Hamilton picked up 16 assists helped by Becker’s nine assists. Mari Robert earned three aces.
Jordan-Elbridge played three times in four days, starting last Monday against the new Syracuse OnTech program as the Eagles rolled to a 25-6, 25-7, 25-7 sweep for its second win of the season.
Zoie Karcz had seven of J-E’s 20 aces, while Brooke Chiaramonte earned six aces to go with six assists, one more than Karcz’s five assists. Abby DelFavero added four aces as Brenna Tubbert had a team-best four kills.
From there, J-E went to back-to-back matches starting Wednesday at LaFayette where it pulled even 25-20 after losing the first sets 25-15, only to have the Lancers claim the next two sets 25-12 and 25-19.
Claire Brown picked up 22 digs, with Isabella Jay managing 16 digs. Karcz had 13 digs to go with nine assists, while Sydney Parsons managed eight digs and five kills. Chiaramonte had six assists and DelFavero had four kills.
Then, facing Weedsport on Thursday night, the Eagles needed just three sets to prevail 25-20, 25-17, 25-19, a steady effort where Brown got seven aces and Karcz five aces. DelFavero led with five kills, Chiaramonte adding seven assists as Karcz tacked on six assists and Brown recorded 12 digs. Chiaramonte and Jay had six digs apiece.
