The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Canastota boys fend off Oneida for win
CANASTOTA, N.Y. » The last time the Oneida and Canastota boys volleyball sides squared off, the Raiders dropped the first game before taking three in a rowfor a 3-1 January win.
Tuesday, the two teams met for a rematch.
The outcome was another 3-1 Canastota win as the Raiders remain unbeaten this season at 13-0.
“We really don’t think about any game that we played before or any game that is coming up. The only game that counts is the one we are playing,” Canastota coach Shay Sgroi said.
Unlike the first meeting, Canastota opened the contest by taking the first game 25-19. The Raiders scored first, but Oneida stayed close throughout, buoyed by the connection between Justin Holmes and Michael Hood. Holmes set Hood up for a kill to level the score at 12-12, but Canastota responded with an AdamBurbank block to retake the lead. Hood put away another kill on the next volley to again tie the score, this time at 13-13. Later in the first, Oneida briefly took a 17-16leadonaCanastotamisfire, but the hosts responded with a 9-2 run, capped by two soaring Ian Torkelson kills for points 24 and 25 to take a 1-0 lead
The two teams continued their neck-and-neck pace into the second game. Sam Snow crushed a kill midway through the second to give Canastota a 14-10. Oneida picked up a point on a Canastota serve into the net to bring the score within
three at 14-11 before Snow found a hole in the Oneida defense for a second kill and a 15-11 Raider lead. Oneida tied the game at 18-18 before the two teams traded four consecutive points for a 22-22 tally, neither side able to gain the advantage. The visitors took the second game 25-23, fending off a diving serve from Canastota’s Zach Blanchard for the game point.
Sgroi had a simple message for the Raiders with the contest knotted at 1-1.
“Just play our game,” she said. “Oneida doesn’t let anything hit the floor. You can’t take any hit for granted; the ball is coming back.”
With Canastota holding a 20-16 advantage in the third game. Snow helped ensure the hosts would not surrender a second game. The junior crushed two kills to give the Riaders a 22-16 edge and force an Oneida timeout. Out of the stoppage, Snow went to work again, putting away two more kills after an Oneida point to bring the score to 24-17.
“I think we really came together as a team well. We have a bunch of good seniors that are leading the team. This is my first year, so I am kind of new to the program,” Snow said. “Hitting, I just felt a lot better. We have a lot of great athletes. We pretty much have two solid starting sixes. It’s really nice. We have a deep bench.” Oneida answered with back-to-back points before Lucas Barnello got in on the action at the net, powering home the gamepoint shot for a 25-19 Canastota win.
Trailing 2-1 in the contest, Oneida refused to go away in the fourth. A block kill by Drew Fielder leveled the score at 11-11. Later, Hood hit another kill shot for Oneida to keep the visitors within two at 15-13, but Canastota closed on a 10-6, capped by a Torkelson kill, to take a 3-1 victory and remain undefeated on the season.
“We made too many mistakes. We had eight serve errors. You are not going to beat a team like that if you are giving them points where they don’t even have to do anything,” Oneida coach Rick Ano said. “You leave an opening on the floor and they are going to get the ball to it. I think that threw the kids off a little and they were leaving their area to try and cover somewhere else...their offense will do that to you.”