CENTRAL NEW YORK – Any time the Liverpool boys volleyball team gets the upper hand on rival Cicero-North Syracuse is reason enough to celebrate from the Warriors’ perspective.

Yet there were several factors which made Monday night’s three-set Liverpool sweep of the Northstars particularly great, starting with the work of senior setter Kellen Conway.

Picking up 22 assists, Conway passed 1,000 assists for his career, a rare high school milestone. He had 531 a season ago and ran his 2024 season total to 438.

Helping Conway on the back line, Keagan Misencik earned 17 assists and added four blocks, while Shahidullah Sahak earned a team-best 14 digs and Chase Loveless got 10 digs.

Up front, Liverpool had tremendous balance. Amaree Burton led with 12 kills but Jack DeForge was close behind earning 11 kills, Sean Frawley adding nine kills. Loveless got six kills and James Kelly five kills plus three aces.

C-NS, for its part, had six kills from Ryan Hill, helped by Joey Lukasiewicz and Jack Copeland earning five kills apiece. Phillip Greer had three kills as Dylan Fournier earned 20 assists and Max Wolanski added nine digs.

As a follow-up Wednesday night Liverpool swept Syracuse City, but it was far from an easy match as it had to win the first and third sets by equal 25-21 margins and the second set 25-22.

Misencik got most of the back-line work earning 21 assists as Conway added 12 assists. Loveless got 15 digs and Sahak 14 digs as, in front of them, DeForge set the pace with 14 kills, twice the total of
Frawley and Loveless with seven kills apiece. Kelly and Burton each got three kills.

When they both played on Friday night, they would be sharply different results, with Liverpool again unable to end Jamesville-DeWitt’s long win streak in a 25-20, 25-17, 25-22 defeat.

Though the first and third sets proved close, the Warriors just could not earn the key points to turn the match around, watching the Red Rams get 30 assists from Carsen Kaelin as Avery Kielbasinski got 14 kills, with Owen Dougherty and Chine Okereke each adding eight kills.

As that went on C-NS took just three sets to topple Central Square 25-11, 29-27, 25-13, dominating at the beginning and end with a long second set in between.

Fournier remained steady with 21 assists, helped by Grady Kennedy, who got 12 assists. Wolanski finished with eight digs. Greer led the front line with 10 kills, while Copeland managed eight kills. Lukasiewicz had five kills and Ryan Leahey four kills, with Lukasiewicz adding six digs.