Burnt Hills, Galway advance

Section II teams to play for state crowns in Glens Falls on Sunday

Carlie Rzeszotarski, Callie Chevalier, Kiera Hartpence and Jenna Vaughn are the only members of the 2021 Burnt Hills girls’ volleyball roster that experienced winning a state title the last time the tournament was held in 2019. Saturday, the Spartans put themselves in position to compete for another championship and add 11 new names to a title list.

Led by the stellar play from outside hitters Rzeszotarski and Chevalier, junior setter Danielle Debonis and Hartpence at libero, Burnt Hills finished 5-1 in Class A pool play Saturday to earn a berth in the final.

Burnt Hills returns to Cool Insuring Arena on Sunday for the state final against Walter Panas. The title match will start at noon.

“Every year you have different teams. That is the beauty of high school sports,” Burnt Hills coach Gary Bynon said. “This is an amazing group of kids. They are led by the seniors. I am just so proud of them. In a day when team is put second, they put team first. We’re playing on the last day of the season. We’ll give it a shot and see what happens.”

“Technically, we’re the defending state champs because we did not get the chance to defend it last year. I think it makes this mean more,” Rzeszotarski said.

Burnt Hills, making its 19th consecutive state final four appearance, clinched a berth in the final by defeating Wantagh (25-8, 25-12) and Niagara Wheatfield (25-11, 25-8) and prior to playing Walter Panas.

In a spirited back-and-forth opening set, the Panthers rallied to defeat the Spartans 28-26.

“They are a really solid team. We knew that going into it,” Rzeszotarski said of Walter Panas.

Walter Panas, the champion from Section I, dropped the