CENTRAL NEW YORK – Though the Westhill girls volleyball team remains the dominant local Onondaga High School League Liberty division side, everyone else is making some noise, too.
Marcellus in particular got a great win Tuesday night against Homer, the OHSL Liberty American division front-runners, absorbing two different Trojans comebacks and still prevailing in five sets.
After dominating the first set 25-12 the Mustangs relaxed and Homer won the second 25-22. Marcellus then took the third 25-17 and again saw the Trojans answer with a 25-19 win in the fourth set.
In the final-set race to 15 points the Mustangs won the race 15-12 led by Chloe Kuttruff, who anchored herself on the back line and posted a career-best 45 assists to go with six digs.
Up front, Maddy Foy had a season-best 21 kills, helped by Dorothy McMahon and her 11 kill as Lake Ziober got seven kills, Harper Camp five kills and Jaidyn Groff four kills. Adelle Aupperle got 13 digs, Foy adding 10 digs and McMahon eight digs as Caiden McLymond chimed in with six digs.
And there wasn’t a letdown 24 hours later when Marcellus swept Solvay in three sets, dominating the second set 25-12 with a 25-20 opening set and 27-25 third set in between.
Foy gained 10 kills and Ziober had eight kills, with Camp getting five kills and McMahon four kills as Mary Curtin served up six aces and Kuttruff got 27 assists. Solvay was led by Hannah Cintron’s six kills and eight assists as Gianna D’Eredita got 16 digs and Riley Gosha added seven assists.
Westhill didn’t halt in any way, ripping past Mexico 25-6, 25-6, 25-7 last Tuesday with a full set’s worth of points (25) earned through aces, six by Alice Bender and five by Ava Baty.
Bender also got 12 digs as Sophia Johnson (12 assists) and Emmie Sisack (seven assists) split setter duties. Baty led with five kills as Eva Tarolli, Emma West, Jocelyn Caputo, Lucy DeMore, Grace Horning and Lottie Bruzdzinski had four kills apiece.
Then came an impressive effort against a much-improved Phoenix squad, Westhill winning 25-14, 25-12, 25-20 over the Firebirds led by Baty’s 18 kills and Bender’s 20 digs. Caputo had seven kills, with Tarolli and West getting five kills apiece as Johnson earned 26 assists and Emmie Sisack stepped up with 14 assists.
Skaneateles took its 1-8 record to Cortland last Tuesday and proceeded to sweep the Purple Tigers, taking the first two sets 25-15 and 25-14 and then a tight third set 26-24.
A more established front line continued to develop for the Lakers, Hannah Ruetsch getting 10 kills as Maddie Mayer and Finn Pas’cal had six kills apiece. Pas’cal added 12 digs to lead a defense where Madi Rossi (eight digs), Delaney Fish (seven digs) and Quinn Reilly (six digs) all helped, Fish managing 24 assists as Natalie Quinn contributed five digs.
Then, against Mexico Thursday night Skaneateles split the first two sets but then ran over the Tigers in the next two sets to win the match 25-18, 12-25, 25-11, 25-3.
Fish picked up 25 assists and a team-best four aces, with Pas’cal earning nine kills and 10 digs. Ruetsch earned eight kills and eight digs, Rossi also getting eight digs as Celia Rogers finished with six digs.
In Thursday’s match with LaFayette Solvay won the first set 25-19, only to drop the next three sets to the Lancers 25-14, 25-21 and 27-25, not quite able to extend it to the wire though Cintron had 10 assists, 16 digs and five kills. D’Eredita amassed 27 digs as Gosha, Rachel Willsey and Samantha Sacco each gained 11 digs.
