CENTRAL NEW YORK – In a typical season the Chittenango girls volleyball team expects to plot out a long post-season run culminating in a Section III Class B winter championship.
But the Bears had gone up and down throughout the 2024-25 campaign and its 7-6 record meant it only held the no. 4 seed in this winter’s edition of the sectional playoffs.
An eight-team bracket in Class B meant Chittenango would host no. 5 seed General Brown in last Wednesday’s quarterfinals, with the winter to get top seed Canastota in the semifinals.
Against the Lions, the Bears put together one of its most lopsided victories of the season, handling GB 25-14 in the first set and 25-9 in the second before closing it out 25-13 in the third set.
Meanwhile, in boys volleyball Chittenango had its own big match on Saturday afternoon – a chance to avenge its only loss of the season to Central Valley Academy.
The Thunder would not allow it to happen, though, pulling out a 26-24 opening set that allowed it to absorb a 25-17 win by the Bears in the second and then take the next two sets by margins of 25-19 and 25-18.
Logan Bronner earned 25 assists and nine digs, with Jackson Blaszkow earning 17 digs and eight kills. Ryan Thousand had 11 kills and eight digs, Jacob Wagner adding 10 kills and nine digs as Gavin Karwoski also had eight digs. Logan Mills got four kills and three blocks.
Leading CVA, Brayden Huntley earned 38 assists and 11 digs. Vincenzo Geloso had 11 kills and 11 digs, with Ethan McCaw, Orion Bliss and Xander Kenniston getting 10 kills apiece as Kenniston produced 25 digs and Andrew Lee contributed 25 digs.
Earlier in the week the Bears swept past winless Herkimer 25-6, 25-7, 25-5 as Thousand got eight aces to go with his six kills, just behind Mills’ total of seven kills.
Blaszkow and Bronner had five aces apiece, with Wagner getting five kills and six digs. Thousand had a team-best seven digs and Karwoski five digs to go with two aces. Bronner produced 23 assists.
A bit more time was spent on the court against Rome Free Academy 24 hours later but Chittenango still needed just three sets to put away the Black Knights 25-18, 25-23, 25-19.
Nearly a full set’s worth of points was produced by Blaszkow putting away 23 kills as he added eight digs. Bronner earned 34 assists, with Thousand getting eight kills and 12 digs. Karwoski had 10 digs, with Mills earning six digs to go with five kills.
