The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Bears win 6th straight
Chittenango sweeps Cato-Meridian at home
After being swept by Onondaga in its first match of the season, Amy Simmons and the Chittenango girls volleyball team talked about putting the loss behind them.
The Bears have been dominant since then, dropping just two sets during a fivematch win streak, which they extended to six straight with a 25-16, 25-12, 25-11 sweep of Cato-Meridian on Saturday afternoon.
“Well we won so that was good,” Simmons said. “I was able to play everybody and I got to try a couple different things so that was good too but it was hard to set up plays against that team.”
Even so, Chittenango got off to a hot start in the first game, jumping out to an 8-1 lead on a series of kills by Leslie Choi and Corrin Stellakis. CatoMeridian was able to pull to within four points on several Bears hitting errors but Hannah Bailey recorded three aces to spark another small scoring run for the hosts and put the game out of reach.
But that didn’t stop the Blue
Devils from battling back. Aided by a series of Chittenango mishits and an ace by Megan Krieger, the visitors were able to cut the Bears’ lead to 21-14. They wouldn’t get any closer. Emily Wood placed the ball just inside the line to set up the game point then a kill by Mackennzie Stewart bounced off Krieger’s hand to give Chittenango a 25-16 win in the first game.
Cato-Meridian tried to rebound in the next game, tying the score at 6- 6 on three straight aces by Delainey LeCuyer, but hit the ball out of bounds on its next serve to put the Bears back in control. The hosts wouldn’t need long to take advantage. Stellakis tallied three kills in a row to cap off a 15- 4 run and put her team back up by 12 points. Chittenango would eventually take the game 25-12.
“That they just need to stay serious and stay focused,” Simmons said of her words to her team. “I told everybody to pick one thing that they needed to work on, one goal for themselves, to get better in this last game.”
The strategy seemed to pay off. Again, the Blue Devils stayed close early, twice tying the game on a pair of hitting errors by the hosts, before kills by Stellakis and Wood helped the Bears regain a 13- 5 advantage. After that, Chittenango pieced together two more small scoring runs to seal the sweep and extend its win streak to six matches.
“It’s awesome,” Simmons said. “Good for the girls.”