ONONDAGA COUNTY – In this instance, it wasn’t a case of whether the Liverpool girls volleyball team defeated Cicero-North Syracuse as much as the way the Warriors pulled it off.
Trailing 2-0 in sets, Liverpool turned it all around in last Tuesday’s match, eventually defeating the Northstars to go to 3-1 on the season.
Fired up from the outset, C-NS emerged from a tense opening set to win it 25-23 and then kept it going in the second, upending Liverpool 25-16 to double its margin.
Facing all this, the Warriors promptly flattened the Northstars 25-8 in the third set, leaving enough energy to withstand all of C-NS’s charges and claim the four 25-20.
Having rallied from two sets down to push Fayetteville-Manlius to five sets on Sept. 18, C-NS watched Liverpool accomplish what the Northstars could not against the Hornets – completing the rally in the final-set race to 15.
The Warriors took it 15-9, seeing Lola Sageer pile up 18 kills, seven blocks, four aces and 22 digs helped on the front line by Madison Ames’ 16 kills and 10 digs. Katie Lebiedzinski and Natalia Nederveld each got seven kills.
Leading the back line, Josie Shaw had 39 assists and 12 digs, Lily Correll adding 18 digs which overcame 21 kills by the Northstars’ Grace Murray, with Kendall Rumble earning 24 assists and Allison Navarra getting 20 digs helped by Grace Schmid and her 13 digs.
It didn’t help C-NS in any way to have to face reigning sectional Class AAA champion Baldwinsville just 24 hours before its match with Liverpool.
To its credit, the Northstars didn’t get discouraged after dropping the first sets 25-17 and 25-19, rising up in the third set to win it 25-19 before the Bees put in its top players in the fourth set and closed it out 25-13.
Murray had 15 kills, with Grace Turrell earning 10 kills. Payton Lamont finished with eight kills as Kendall Rumble had 26 assists and 11 dig, Navarra managing 19 digs. B’ville got 14 kills and 10 digs from Amelia Hahn in front of a back line where Madison MacKaig recorded 21 assists and Addy Garcia finished with 19 digs.
