ONONDAGA COUNTY – The Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool boys volleyball teams gather Tuesday night at North Syracuse Junior High School for the first of their two regular-season encounters.
And they would both do so coming off defeats in last Thursday night’s matches, the Northstars falling to Fayetteville-Manlius and the Warriors turned back by East Syracuse Minoa.
In C-NS’s case, this was payback on F-M’s part for the defeat it took to the Northstars in the 2023 Section III Division I final, only lasting three sets but still quite close.
Having pulled out the opening set 25-23, the Hornets saw the Northstars drag the second and third sets beyond the point limit with multiple chances to close out each of them.
Yet F-M won them, 28-26 in the second and 26-24 in the third, overcoming Jack Copeland’s eight kills and a back line where Grady Kennedy had 14 assists and Dylan Fournier 10 assists. On the Hornets’ side, Patrick Horton’s 28 assists led to 12 kills from Ben Resig and eight kills from Charlie Schroder.
As this went on, Liverpool took its 5-0 record to East Syracuse Minoa, where it tore through the first set 25-11 but then lost close 25-23 and 29-27 sets to the Spartans, who went on to win the fourth 25-21 and hand the Warriors its initial defeat of the season.
It happened despite Sean Frawley’s 22 kills and Kellen Conway’s 46 assists. Chase Loveless and Jack DeForge had 10 kills apiece, Loveless adding 12 digs to help a defense where Shahidullah Sahak had 18 digs and Gianni DeFrancesco 14 digs. Amaree Burton had five kills as ESM was led by Dononvan Randall’s 30 assists and Tyler Quarry’s 14 kills.
Back on Tuesday night, Liverpool went to F-M and delivered a first-rate performance, sweeping the Hornets with 25-18 decisions in each of the first two sets and a 25-14 victory in the third for the sweep.
DeForge set the tone, not only getting 17 kills but serving up four aces and adding five digs. Frawley chimed in with 10 kills as Loveless earned six kills. Conway had 28 assists as Sahak picked up a team-best eight digs.
