CENTRAL NEW YORK – Despite a host of close calls and serious challenges, the Baldwinsville girls volleyball still managed an undefeated mark within the Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division.
And it gained for the Bees a bye straight into the Nov. 9 Section III Class AAA championship match since just three teams are in the field. B’ville will face the winner of the Nov. 6 semifinal where no. 2 seed Liverpool hosts no. 3 seed Cicero-North Syracuse.
Before all this, another test came Tuesday night against West Genesee, which went to four sets before the Bees were able to put away the Wildcats. B’ville found itself in two close sets thanks to the Wildcats’ level of play, yet still took both of them by 25-20 and 25-22 margins.
WG finally grabbed the third set in another 25-20 decision to extend the match, leading to a fourth set where B’ville took over again and closed it out 25-17, led by Amelia Hahn’s 14 kills and Mallory Offredi’s 10 kills.
Natalie Dauphinais (seven kills) and Avery Davenport (six kills) gave the Bees more depth up front as Addy Garcia’s 11 digs augmented 12 digs from Offredi and 10 digs from Hahn.
Eliana Becker gave the Wildcats 30 assists during the night, her passes going to Norah Emery, who had eight kills, and Bella Vallely, who got seven kills. Hollis Pfeiffer gained 19 digs, helped by Sidney Hamilton’s 12 digs and Maddie Cook’s 10 digs.
A far easier match came on Thursday night, B’ville routing Henninger 25-5, 25-5, 25-7 with 20 aces, nine of them from Hahn as Dauphinais added four aces. Garcia worked up front for seven kills, Offredi adding five kills as Madison MacKaig got four kills to go with her 15 assists.
B’ville’s boys volleyball team ran into Living Word Academy Monday night, and though each set got closer, the Bees still fell in three set to the Lions 25-18, 25-20, 25-23.
Nate Mekker had 14 assists for the Bees, while Justin Diep led the defense with 19 digs. Up front, Ryan Levy got 10 kills, with Nico D’Elia had five kills. Chase Johnson got five assists and three kills. Living Word got 17 kills from Jeremiah Plewak and 33 assists from Jonathan Mazur.
But the Bees did turn it around against Oswego two nights later, taking just three sets to record a 25-17, 25-21, 25-20 victory over the Buccaneers.
Again B’ville had nice balance at the net with Levy’s seven kills augmented by six kills apiece from Mekker and Mike Naprawa. Mekker also had eight assists helping Johnson (10 assists) on the back line as Diep played superb defense with 17 digs and D’Elia put up four kills.
Playing again on Friday night, B’ville would push Fayetteville-Manlius to five sets.
Each of the first four sets were tight ones, the Bees taking the opener 25-22 before the Hornets claimed the second 25-23 and a long third set 27-25, only to have B’ville pull back even with a tense 25-23 win in the fourth.
Only the final set had any kind of margin, F-M finally subduing the Bees 15-8 led by Patrick Horton’s 44 assists and Ben Resig’s 19 kills. B’ville fell to 3-11 overall.
