Eden leads reunion of area’s best girls volleyball players
By Budd Bailey, Buffalo News
Tuesday, December 22, 2015

It’s been just about impossible to put together an All-Western New York team in girls volleyball in the past few years without having representation from Eden.

After all, the Raiders are the local gold standard in the sport. They’ve won seven straight state championships, including this year’s title match against Millbrook.

“It never gets boring,” Meghan Ballou of Eden said.

That sort of drive for success is partly why Ballou and teammate Samantha Burgio head up the 2015 All-Western New York squad. The 12-girl team is selected by area coaches.

“It meant a lot to us this year,” Ballou said about the latest Eden championship. “We wanted to leave it all on the court. Some of the girls have been together since eighth grade, and it’s really great to win the last state tournament.”

Seven straight state victories are pretty impressive, but 17 straight appearances in the state’s final four might even be a bigger accomplishment. That’s longer than most of the team members have been alive.

“It’s definitely a lot of pressure,” Ballou said. “Every team comes to beat you. Every team is gunning for Eden. It’s like we have a target on our backs.

“The good thing is that every girl that comes in to the team works hard. We’ve been at the tournament for 17 years, so we know what to expect.”

Ballou, a senior, thus ends her scholastic career as a five-time state champion. She was on the state’s all-tournament team twice (grades 10 and 11).

Her teammate, Burgio, had an even better season – at least according to the New York Volleyball Coaches Association. The group picked Burgio as its player of the year in Section VI. The Eden coach, Stephen Pierce, took coach of the year honors.

The best volleyball players usually participate in the sport for most of the calendar year, as they play for their club teams when the high school competition is done. Therefore, a gathering of Western New York’s best is something of a reunion for the girls.

“All of these girls are a team in a sense,” Ballou said. “It’s great to see everyone back on the court.”

Speaking of state champions, Portville won its second in a row in Class D, and the Panthers are represented on the list of Western New York’s best by Lydia Lukowski.

The senior had the honor of serving the championship-winning points at the end of the fifth and deciding set of the match with Haldane of Section I. She was named the most valuable player of the tournament in her class.

Clarence made it to the state’s final four as well, and two Red Devils were named to the list of the area’s best players. Karley King and Meghan Neelon helped made school history by leading Clarence to a win over Webster-Scrhroeder of Section V in the Far West Regionals. King was an all-tournament pick in states, while Neelon is a first-team all-state pick.

Williamsville East also won a Section VI title, with the win coming in Class A. Carly Shifflet set a school record for the Flames with 510 kills, while teammates Lexi Novak added 479 kills during the 2015 season.

Sweet Home, which lost to Williamsville East in the Section VI final, was led by Rachel Reusch. The senior was her team’s most valuable player and made several all-tournament teams.

Lindsay Proctor was the top player for Grand Island. She led the team in kills, digs and aces for the past two years.

Among Msgr. Martin Association schools, Bailey Dolegowski and Alyssa Zirnheld earned top honors in Western New York. Dolegowski was MVP in the MMA, while Zirnheld had 410 kills this season. Emily Rand of Nardin joined them on the first team; she has been a first-team All-Catholic pick for two straight years.

“They’re all great players,” Ballou said.

email: bbailey@buffnews.com

Others receiving votes and listed on two or more ballots: CSUN 19; Pfeiffer 12; IPFW 4 

Five teams mentioned on only one ballot for a total of 13 combined points. 

Next Poll: January 11, 2016

OFF TO CLARKSON
Amherst Bee
Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Sweet Home senior Rachel Reusch, bottom row, second from right, a member of the Sweet Home varsity girls volleyball team, recently signed a national letter of intent to play for the Golden Knights of Clarkson University. Also pictured in the front row are her sister, Chelsea, far left, father, William, and mother, Arlene Reusch. Pictured in the back row are Athletic Director Chris DeMarco, High School Principal Joleen Reinholz, Sweet Home volleyball coach Breean Martin and Superintendent Anthony Day. Reusch is a three-time All-ECIC First Team All-star, was team MVP as a junior, an All-Western New York All-star and a WNY scholar athlete.

New York Volleyball POY: Sam Burgio
By USATODAY High School Sports
Tuesday, December 8, 2015

The Gatorade State Volleyball Players of the Year were selected based on athletic production and impact in the 2015-16 season. Each winner also demonstrated high academic achievement and exemplary personal character, including volunteerism, sportsmanship and community leadership.

For the complete list of Gatorade State Volleyball Player of the Year winners, click here.

THE WINNER: Sam Burgio

THE BASICS

School: Eden (N.Y.)
Grade: Junior
Position: Outside hitter
Height: 5-foot-10

Athletic achievement: She led the Raiders to a 37-8-1 record and the Class C state championship this past season, their state-record seventh title in a row. Burgio recorded 646 kills, 510 digs, 140 service aces and 79 blocks. A First Team All-State selection each of the past two seasons, she’s also a two-time member of the All-State Tournament Team.

Academic excellence: Burgio has maintained an A average.

Exemplary character: Also a talented singer, she has volunteered locally on behalf of the Special Olympics and youth sports programs.

THE PRAISE

“Burgio is one of the best outside hitters I’ve seen play the game,” said Renee Smith, head coach at Tonawanda High. “Her biggest strength is her power and control over the ball. She’s smart and she always knows where the ball is supposed to go.”

THE FUTURE: Burgio will begin her senior year of high school next fall.

Dallas to Host 2016 World League Stop
USAVolleyball.org / B.J. Evans
Thursday, December 3, 2015

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Dec. 3, 2015) - Celebrate the United States' birthday by cheering the U.S. Men's Volleyball Team at its final domestic tournament before the 2016 Olympic Games.

The Dallas Sports Commission and the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas will host the 2015 FIVB World Cup champion United States, defending Olympic champion Russia, Bulgaria and Australia in FIVB World League matches on July 1-3.

Tickets will go on sale in mid-December.

The FIVB World League is an elite annual men's volleyball competition in which the best teams in the world compete in pool play matches trying to qualify for the Final Round (July 13-17) and a first-place prize of $1 million.

The 2016 World League matches will be played in conjunction with the USA Volleyball Boys' Junior National Championships, which will also be held at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.

"We are looking forward to returning to Dallas for World League," U.S. Head Coach John Speraw said. "Dallas fans were supportive and enthusiastic when we competed there in 2012 and we went on to do well in the World League Final Round."

Dallas last hosted World League in 2012 when the U.S. Men hosted France, Italy and Korea and advanced to the Final round where they took the silver medal.

The U.S. Men qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games by winning the 2015 World Cup. The matches in Dallas will be their last competition in the United States before they leave for Rio de Janeiro.

In 2016, World League will have a shortened format. Group 1 consists of the top 12 teams from the 2015 World League. Every team will play every other team once over the course of three weekends of preliminary play. The top five teams plus the hosts will advance to the Final Round.

The U.S. Men have won World League twice (2008 and 2014). They took silver in 2012 and have finished third three times (1992, 2007 and 2015).

Clarence Boys volleyball nets pair of all-stars
Clarence Bee
Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Clarence’s boys volleyball team recently learned that it had a pair of all-stars in its midst this season.

Senior Ben Janzow was tabbed an ECIC I Second Team All-star after finishing the season second in kills and kill percentage, as well as third in digs.

Junior Henry Payne, meanwhile, was named an All-WNY First Team All-star, becoming just the fifth player in program history to earn such an honor and first since 2010.

Payne paced the Class A sectional semifinalists in kill attempts, kills, kill percentage and digs. His 1,206 attempts and 640 kills were the second highest in a single season in program history behind David Hill, the team’s most recent All-WNY First Teamer.

“Henry’s kill percentage of .506 was amazing, considering that every team put up at least a double and often a triple block against him,” said coach Kevin Starr.

Payne, who already is being recruited by several NCAA Division I programs, was also recently selected to participate in USA Volleyball’s High Performance camp, recognizing him as one of the top players in the nation in his age group. He will play club volleyball with the Eden Volleyball Club’s 17 and under team, which will compete at the national level this winter and spring.

Ballou wraps up fruitful Eden volleyball career, to join forces with sister at Daemen
By: Aaron Garland, Sports reporter | Sports Hamburg Sun
Monday, November 30, 2015

Eden senior Meghan Ballou signs to play volleyball with Daemen College.
Ballou won five state titles during her career with the Raiders. Photo / Aaron Garland

This school volleyball season has a been a little different than others for Meghan Ballou. 

Since Ballou started playing the sport around 11, she’s been on many of the same teams as her sister, Kailey, who’s a year older. There have been a few club seasons that deviated from that, but the fact remains that there is a definite connection between the sisters when they share a court. 

That was evident the four years they did that for the Eden girls volleyball team. When Meghan Ballou was brought up to varsity as an eighth grader, big sister was also there as a freshman. They won four state titles together with the Raiders before Kailey graduated in June. 

So for the first time this fall, Meghan Ballou went through a varsity season without the chemistry she has with Kailey. 

Not that it mattered too much, though. 

The 5-foot-11 Meghan Ballou was still a game-changing player — and a versatile one because of her height — who helped Eden to its seventh straight state championship last weekend. She was named the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class C tournament MVP.

But the time not being on the same side won’t last much longer. 

On Nov. 19 inside Eden High School, Meghan Ballou signed a National Letter of Intent with Daemen women’s volleyball, which Kailey played for as a freshman this fall. Next year, the Ballou-Ballou combination will be back intact. 

“Being able to join forces with her again, it’ll be really cool,” Meghan Ballou said. “When we’re on the court, we really play well together, so I think it will be like it has been when we get to Daemen together. We’ll contribute a lot.”

In ways, not having Kailey by her side in 2015 was beneficial to Meghan. She was one of just three seniors on Eden, increasing the importance of her role as a veteran. 

Meghan Ballou felt this season allowed her to grow as a leader. Some of the younger girls followed her guidance the same way she once followed Kailey’s, and before her, Kendall and Lainy Pierce’s. The latter two are former Eden stars who are playing for D-I powerhouse Penn State. 

Those variables all collided to motivate Meghan Ballou to make the most of her senior year, and sign on with a high-level collegiate program. 

Check and check. 

“Being in this program has been amazing,” Meghan Ballou said. “I’ve just grown and learned from all the players who have come before me. It’s contributed to the senior leadership I bring today, setting examples for the younger girls. I just left it all on the court this year.”

Daemen is in its first year as an active NCAA Division II member, and the team went 12-17 this fall under new Wildcats coach Bob Maxwell. The mixture of Daemen possessing a volleyball team with a history of success and a competitive physician assistant program that’s a short drive away also helped Meghan Ballou come to this decision. 

“I thought it would be a great fit for me because it’s close to home,” Ballou said. “I’m really close with my family and the community here. Daemen’s volleyball program is outstanding. It’s a program I want to be a part of, add to, and just contribute everything I can and fill my potential.”

And that potential is high, according to Eden coach Stephen Pierce. Sure, Meghan Ballou had the skill to be pulled up to varsity as a middle-schooler, and to be starting as a freshman. 

But despite Ballou playing anywhere from right side to outside hitter to middle for Eden, Pierce noted the physical abilities she’s displaying these days weren’t present a short time ago. 

Ballou hovers around 6-foot now, but Pierce thinks this could be a case where Ballou is able to elevate her game several notches and become a real force in D-II volleyball. 

“Meghan was a late bloomer physically,” Pierce said. “I think that’s why she has very high potential to have a really good college career. They’ll hit her with a weight-lifting program.

“She’s been an enjoyable kid to work with as a student in class, and as an athlete. She’s been a good role model for the kids following. We always miss kids like that.”

Through talks with her sister and the Daemen coaching staff, Meghan Ballou said that she believes the Wildcats’ practices and expectations will have the feel of a D-I program. 

But she’s used to that type of commitment to training and conditioning, coming from Eden, which has an almost unrivaled tradition of excellence in the area. 

“The practices are like a D-I practice — very intense and focused,” Meghan Ballou said. “It’s everything Mr. Pierce has had us thinking when you go to the next level. Our practices here at Eden, you always have to be focused, always ready. Mr. Pierce has helped me become the player that I am today.”

Having some additional support in Kailey won’t hurt Meghan Ballou’s transition to the college game, either. In fact, it should be to the delight of the Wildcats. 

“Me being by myself, being the senior this season, it’s been different,” Meghan Ballou said. “When I get to Daemen I think we can feed off each other and have the chemistry that we had before.”

Twitter: @Garland_SUN

Eden girls volleyball captures seventh straight state title
By: Aaron Garland, Sports reporter | Sports Hamburg Sun
Sunday, November 29, 2015

The Eden girls volleyball team gets a touch of the New York State Public High
School Athletic Association Class C championship plaque. Photo / Dave Eckhardt

When it mattered most, the Eden girls volleyball team showcased that “been-here-before” character. 

It proved, once again, that it has the mettle of a champion. 

The Raiders went 6-0 during pool play of New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class C Championships Saturday (Nov. 21) at the Glens Falls Civic Center to advance to Sunday’s finals. 

And in the title match, after taking Game One, Eden let a 24-19 lead slip away as Section IX’s Millbrook rallied for a 26-24 win. That tied the match and was also Eden’s first dropped game this postseason. 

The Raiders didn’t allow the momentary lapse to linger and become a deterrent, though. Positive responses to unfavorable scenarios are part of the reason why the program has 12 state crowns. 

Scratch that … 13 state crowns.

Eden bounced back from the Game-Two defeat and closed out strong, defeating Millbrook, 25-19, 24-26, 25-11 and 25-13, to win its seventh straight state championship and 13th overall. 

“We had already beaten them in the state finals two times before and they were coming with probably the best team they’ve had,” Raiders coach Stephen Pierce said. “So when we dropped the second game, suddenly they’re believing they can do something. And a lot of teams would kind of fall back on their heels and feel the pressure and maybe start making unforced errors. But these girls jumped right out in the third game, took control of it, and really played error-free ball.”

Eden’s last five titles have come in Class C. Senior Meghan Ballou, who’s been on all five of those championship teams, was named tournament MVP. She had 21 kills and three blocks in the finals.

Pierce noted Ballou “had some of the most dynamic kills of the entire tournament, any class.” Ballou had plenty of help, too.

Junior outside hitter Sam Burgio, the Maryland commit, and junior libero Molly Breier were named to the all-tournament team. 

Burgio, last year’s state tourney MVP, had 18 kills and 16 digs versus the Blazers (27-6-4) while Breier recorded five aces and 27 digs and was serving for the first 10 points of Game Four. 

Jumping out to that 10-0 edge, built on the strength of Breier’s serves, was the Raiders (35-9-1) declaring that they had no intention of seeing the championship match become a five-game thriller. 

“Sam and Molly have an opportunity, if they win it next year, to win six straight state titles,” Pierce said. “The thing that I’m most thrilled about is the level of play that we played at. They had to play well to beat this team and they really did.

“(Millbrook) had one especially dynamic player (5-foot-11 Megan Fergus), one of the top players in the state, so I knew we had to keep them at bay. Fortunately we did.”

Junior setter Alyssa Durski “played possibly her best match of the year,” according to Pierce, who added that Durski easily could have also made all-tournament. She registered 48 assists and seven kills against Millbrook. 

Teammate Sam Logan chipped in seven kills and two blocks while freshman Paiton Basinski was also impactful in the win, with seven kills and around 15 service points, Pierce said. 

Pierce noted that he felt his girls truly had the look of a veteran group that was there for one thing: No. 13.

“These kids really had the feel of, ‘We’re not just here to show up,’” Pierce said. “They really took responsibility for setting the tone of how we played. I felt pretty good in the timeout huddles. The girls never had a look of panic on their faces. They knew what they had to do. They stayed even-keeled emotionally.”

While Pierce noted that there was still excitement and delight when Eden scored the final point and celebrated the school’s 13th win at the state tournament, he still cherishes the earlier years when the Raiders were winning. Back when Eden was building its reputation as the gold standard, and not yet the envy of other public school volleyball teams. 

During Game Three of Eden’s finals match, the Class AA championship ended on another court with Section XI’s Connetquot capturing its first-ever win at states. Players and coaches mobbed the court and the joy in their voices and faces was plenty evident to Pierce. 

“Sometimes I kind of miss that,” he said. “Our girls — it was a hard-fought match that we played and the team was good — but it’s almost like they’re happy, but they’re also relieved. It was like, ‘This is our job to do, this is what we do.’”

At the same time, nothing beats continuing a tradition. 

“It’s one of those things where I think it takes a while for the kids to have it sink in,” Pierce said. “Because some of these kids, like Molly (Breier) and Sam (Burgio) and Meghan (Ballou), this is their fourth or fifth state tournament where they’ve been on the team, and in many of those years, really contributing. That’s a great accomplishment.”

Twitter: @Garland_SUN

West names Bartus among fall season’s final top athletes
West Seneca Bee
Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Bartus, a 6-foot-11 third-year starting senior outside hitter on the boys volleyball team, led the section in total kills and surpassed West’s career record for that stat early this season. Bartus had three matches with over 40 kills during October and helped lead West to wins over top teams such as Frontier, Clarence and Grand Island.

“Cam is a member of the USA A1 national training program, which is the top 40 athletes in the country, and has traveled all over the country in the Olympic Developmental Program, leaving him little time to commit to other sports,” coach Brett Widman said. “He was a top-five recruit in the nation but has committed to — and will be signing to — Penn State.”

Shifflet to play volleyball at Canisius
PATRICK NAGY Sports Reporter Amherst Bee
Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Williamsville East senior athletes sure like the idea of playing sports at Mercyhurst College.

Emma Hubert and Sydney Reeves will play lacrosse and Lexi Skibitsky will play field hockey at Mercyhurst after signing national letters of intent on Nov. 17. Carly Shifflet also signed to play volleyball at Canisius College.

Deciding on Mercyhurst was a somewhat easy decision for Hubert.

The senior attackman looked at other Division II schools and contemplated going to Division I St. Bonaventure, but always wanted to play at Mercyhurst. Last spring, Mercyhurst lost to Lock Haven in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference final.

“Since eighth grade, I heard about their program and success and I wanted to be a part of it,” she said. “I looked at a lot of Division II schools in the [Eastern College Athletic Conference], but I always came back to Mercyhurst.”

Hubert was a goal-scoring machine for East last spring, recording 83 tallies. The total ranked second in Section VI behind Hamburg junior Claire Hermann, fourth in the state according to maxpreps.com, and is a single season school record. She enters her senior year with 117 career goals.

Hubert also led the team last year with 137 shots, averaged 6.1 points per game, and recorded 21 assists and 41 ground balls. She was named an All-Bee First Team and ECIC Division II First Team all-star.

“Emma has worked really hard in the offseason to get better,” East coach Jennifer Courtney said. “She did not start playing lacrosse until seventh or eighth grade and continued to get better. She has a quickness where she can deke out a defender with a little move, cut inside and place the shot beautifully. She was a huge asset for us. I’m really proud of her.”

Hubert, who credits her improvement to her offseason work with the Stampede Lacrosse program, has been told by the Mercyhurst coaches that she will be able to contribute as a freshman.

“All freshmen start in the midfield so they can learn the offense and defense, but they do have a position at forward that they want me to play,” Hubert said.

“When kids go to college, they often sit for a year,” Courtney added. “I haven’t talked to the Mercyhurst coach, but I have seen their program and I think Emma has the ability to step right on their field.”

Hubert wants to major in political science.

Reeves, a defender for East, said she fell in love with Mercyhurst as soon she stepped on the campus. Her major, intelligence studies, is also offered.

Courtney called Reeves “an important part of the East team.”

“She can shut down the other team’s best player,” Courtney said. “She’s very deserving to be playing at Mercyhurst.”

Skibitsky, a four-year starting midfielder at East, chose Mercyhurst over Central Michigan and some Division III schools to play field hockey, although Mercyhurst was always her top choice.

“I visited Mercyhurst as a sophomore and right away, I fell in love with the campus,” she said. “On my overnight, they were all welcoming and nice. All of the other schools I visited I kept comparing it back to Mercyhurst. They were always No. 1.”

Skibitsky, who also plays ice hockey and lacrosse, said it was a difficult decision to choose lacrosse over field hockey, but ultimately chose field hockey because she has played the sport longer.

East coach Erin Rajczak said Skibitsky’s stick work is unbelievable, her ability to dodge around defenders is fun to watch, and she always seems to have a new move up her sleeve that “blows my mind.”

Skibitsky is looking to enter a pre-physician’s assistant program.

Shifflet, who has been the backbone of East’s girls volleyball team since she started at outside hitter as a freshman, chose Canisius because it is a good fit for her major, physical education, and will have the opportunity to play for a Division I program.

“I just really liked the school and classroom size,” she said. “It felt like a good fit for me.”

East coach Scott Wright said Shifflet is the school’s single-season record holder in kills and thinks she is the career leader in kills and digs.

“When you get a person like Carly, you get everything you want,” he said. “She’s our best player and also the hardest worker, so that means she is a good leader. It’s no coincidence we lost one league game in four years since she has been here and have gone undefeated in the league for the past two years. She is someone that can lead by example and has the hard work and dedication you need to be a winner.” 

East girls volleyball’s dream season falls short at state championships
PATRICK NAGY Sports Reporter Amherst Bee
Wednesday, November 25, 2015

The Williamsville East girls volleyball team’s greatest season in school history ended in bittersweet fashion.

The Lady Flames went 2-4 in pool play at the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class A Championships Saturday at the Glens Falls Civic Center in Glens Falls Saturday and did not qualify for Sunday’s final.

East split games against Section XI’s

Kings Park, 22-25, 25-15, lost to Section II’s Burnt Hills-Balston Lake, 26-28, 22-25, and then split games against Section I’s Walter Panas, 22-25, 25-10. The 22-25 loss to Walter Panas ended East’s chances of advancing.

“It was all there for us but we could not close any games,” East coach Scott Wright said. “Of our four losses, three we had control of and we let go.”

East built an 11-6 lead in the first set against Kings Park and was ahead 13-10 before Kings Park won 11 of the next 15 points.

East trailed in the second set 4-3 when junior Lexi Novak went on a five-point serving run.

The Lady Flames extended their lead to 17-9 on kills from sophomore Makayla Greenfield and Novak, and an ace from senior Carly Shifflet, and won the set on a kill from Shifflet.

Wright thought his team played some of its best volleyball against Burnt Hills, but still fell short.

Burnt Hills, which went on to win the Class A state title, jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the first set.

East trailed 14-9 and won four of its next five points, cutting the lead to 15-13. Burnt Hills extended its advantage to 19-16 when East won six of the next seven points, taking a 22-20 lead.

A kill from Shifflet had East ahead, 24-21, but Burnt Hills won the next three points. Twice Shifflet recorded kills to save set point but Burnt Hills pulled out the set.

East fell behind 11-4 in the second set and 18-13 before they rallied and tied the set at 18-18 on four kills from Shifflet. Novak registered a kill to give East its first lead, 22-21, but Burnt Hills won the final four points.

East needed to win both sets against Walter Panas to reach the finals, and jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first set on kills from Novak, sophomore Allison Jozwiak and Shifflet.

Panas tied the set at 9-9 before East went on a six-point run to take a 15-9 lead behind two kills from junior Leah Orsini, one from Novak and a Shifflet ace.

East move ahead 18-13 but Panas tied the set at 18-18.

A kill from Orsini extended the Lady Flames’ lead to 22-20, but Panas won the final four points.

The Lady Flames jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the second set behind serving from senior Sam Mendelsohn.

Panas cut the lead to 9-6 before a serving run from Novak extended the lead to 17-6. The final kill of Shifflet’s high school career was set point.

Shifflet finished pool play with 37 kills and 28 digs, and was named to the All-Tournament Team.

Shifflet finished the season by becoming the first East player to record more than 500 kills, registering 501. The previous school record was 442 set by Erica Moser.

Shifflet was also second on the team with 468 digs.

Wright thinks Shifflet is the school’s all-time leader in kills and digs.

Mendelsohn had 43 digs and two aces, and finished the season with 575 digs.

Novak recorded 28 kills and 33 digs, and also broke the school record for kills in a season with 479. She also recorded 445 digs and led the team with 85 aces.

Greenfield had 75 assists and 18 digs Saturday, and broke the school’s single-season record for assists with 1,171. She also added 285 digs and was second on the team with 49 aces.

The Flames also received strong performances Saturday from Orsini (10 kills, 1 block), Jozwiak (4 kills, 7 digs), and freshman Rachel Steffan (2 kills, 21 digs).

Orsini finished the season with 113 kills and a team-high 71 blocks.

Jozwiak had 89 kills, 107 digs, and was second on the team in blocks with 43. Steffan concluded her rookie year with 97 kills and 194 digs.

Junior Anne Marie Jones finished with 163 digs and 31 aces. Junior Julianna Benz contributed 159 digs and 68 assists.

East finished 20-0 in match play and 37-1-2 overall.

“It was a pleasure coaching the team,” Wright said. “They were very focused on what their goals were.”

Although the team is graduating Shifflet and Mendelsohn, two four-year starters, 10 players return. 

Clarence Girls volleyball season ends in state semis
Wins one of six sets in round-robin format
JASON NADOLINSKI Sports Reporter Clarence Bee
Wednesday, November 25, 2015

The best season in Clarence girls volleyball program history came to an end Saturday in Glens Falls as the Lady Red Devils lost to two of the other three semifinalists and tied the third during round-robin play, which was used to determine the two squads that would move on to the state’s Class AA championship match.

But that doesn’t mean the 13 girls making up this year’s squad — especially the two seniors, outside hitter Karley King and right-side hitter Grayce Enderby, who were playing for the final time in a Clarence uniform — left the court at the Glens Falls Civic Center as anything but winners, even if they didn’t have a state championship plaque to validate them.

In fact, with the way the Lady Red Devils handled themselves in the face of adversity, coach Mike Meyer probably couldn’t have been any prouder of his squad if they had pulled out a state title in its first-ever appearance at the state semifinals.

“This team repeated as undefeated league and sectional champions, and these girls won a [Far West] regional for the first time in school history,” Meyer said. “I am proud of how the girls played all year and am proud of the people that they are all becoming. I think watching them fight back against the odds, after having already been eliminated from a chance at the final, and winning that final set of the day is probably the proudest I have ever felt towards any team I have ever coached.

“The bottom line is, this team and these girls had a pretty awesome season.”

The set Meyer referred to was Clarence’s only victory on the day, a 25-23 conquest in the second set of the Lady Red Devils’ match with Section IX’s Pine Bush. Clarence, which dropped the first set by a 25-17 score, had nothing to play for but pride at that point, but — to no surprise to Meyer — that proved to be a powerful motivator for the Lady Red Devils.

Clarence called its final timeout trailing 23-22 in the set and, with sophomore setter/outside hitter Meghan Neelon on deck to serve and promising, according to Meyer, to get two points on her serve, the Lady Red Devils set up a play for sophomore middle hitter Melissa Ratzel. Clarence executed its plan flawlessly, with Ratzel blasting the kill to knot the score at 23-23 and put the ball in Neelon’s hands.

Neelon responded by serving up an ace to put Clarence ahead, 24-23. On the next play freshman libero Jaide Cummings passed a ball for Ratzel to attack but her spike was dug out and subsequently set up for Pine Bush’s 6-foot-4 middle hitter. Ratzel rose to the occasion and blocked her kill attempt and Pine Bush overplayed the coverage dig, which Ratzel was then able to put away for the game winner.

“The girls very easily could have thrown in the towel, especially after we were trailing late in the set, but they refused to give in and refused to quit on each other,” Meyer said. “Melissa, who was unstoppable all day, came up huge at the end, and Meghan and [junior setter] Maddie Christopher set great and played amazing defense. Grayce came off the bench and provided a huge spark in the game too. It was awesome.”

Pine Bush, which had a roster loaded with tall and athletic players, faced a relentless attack from All-Tournament Team selection King, while junior middle hitter Mary Owen picked up three kills and two blocks while going up against Pine Bush’s 6-4 middle blocker.

Clarence’s tournament began at 8:30 in the morning against Section XI’s Connetquot, the eventual state champion. Meyer likened Connetquot to Clarence, drawing parallels between the squads in terms of both teams’ tough serving, solid passing and strong defense.

Connetquot was able to rocket out to a quick start in both sets against the Lady Red Devils, however, which helped it take Clarence down by 25-11, 25-14 scores.

“Connetquot was a team that was built on defense, but I think they were able to build some pretty decent momentum against us that they never let slip away from them over the course of the two days,” Meyer said.

The round-robin format of the tournament allowed Meyer and the Lady Red Devils to scout each of their next two opponents immediately after the conclusion of their first match, as Pine Bush and Section II’s Shenendehowa squared off with one another at the conclusion of the Lady Red Devils’ match with Connetquot.

Meyer noted both of Clarence’s upcoming opponents were tall and athletic, and as such he and his players quickly devised a strategy for their upcoming matches revolving around taking both Shenendehowa and Pine Bush out of their respective systems with tough serving and not sending too many free balls over the net.

Meyer noted that his squad appeared to become more settled in and at ease for its match with Shenendehowa, but in the end even getting those first-match jitters out of their system wasn’t enough to not end on the wrong side of a 25-19, 25-18 decision.

“After a slow start in the morning against Connetquot, I think we settled in and started playing better throughout the day,” Meyer said. “We didn’t do much differently, just played better as we settled in and got more comfortable. All of the teams that reached that level, from Class AA down to Class D, are very talented teams with very few weak spots. Even though we didn’t do as well as we would’ve hoped, the tournament is a true test to find out who is the best with a chance to play everyone in your division at least.”

Prior to the tournament, Clarence — as well as the other 19 teams through all the divisions that were playing for a title — had the opportunity to introduce themselves to one another while representing their hometowns. Each team gave a speech as part of the meet-and-greet at the Glens Falls Civic Center, and Neelon and King focused their speech on the family centered community that Clarence is and also the way that their team has become sort of a family. Meyer said that both Neelon and King “mentioned feeling like they were a team of 14 sisters.”

“We stayed overnight Friday and had breakfast together, which just kind of reinforced what Meghan and Karley said in their speech,” Meyer said. “The setting, the banquet, and being together were all an important part of the experience of states.”

Though obviously no high school team can bank on continued success given the constant roster turnover that takes place, the Lady Red Devils finished one step further in each of the past two seasons. With just two players graduating off of this year’s squad, even if Clarence isn’t able to make another run to the state semifinals next fall it certainly learned a lot about how to succeed while completing its journey this season that can be used in the future.

“I think that if we are fortunate enough to return to states we would be more prepared for the stage next time,” Meyer said. “It was a little like our regional appearance last year; by the time we settled in at that match we were down two games to none, and it was too big of a hole to climb out of. I think that if we could go back, armed with the experience of this year, we would be able to start quicker. For the girls who’ll be back, though, getting to go this year should be a huge boost in their confidence as they go into to club season and beyond.”

email: jnadolinski@beenews.com

Portville wins volleyball crown by smallest of margins
By Staff Buffalo News
Sunday, November 22, 2015

Portville’s Sydney Colligan, left, Haley Unverdorben (14), Allysa Martin (4), and Beth
Miller (7) react after winning the state Class D girls volleyball championship. Nick Serrata

GLENS FALLS – The trigger word all season was experience.

Could Portville muster enough to come close to replicating last year’s Class D state girls volleyball championship?

The Panthers acquired all of it and then some. And that was just over the course of 2½ hours and five wild title-round sets Sunday.

They ousted Section I participant Haldane after squandering the third set and escaping a match point in the fifth.

“I just had to keep focusing on breathing,” standout outside hitter Lydia Lukomski said after a sequence of her serves put the match away.

It was a splendid angled shot from freshman Sierra Keim (off a set from sophomore Haley Unverdorben) that actually won the match, 26-24. Her teammates mobbed her and coach Kelly Unverdorben tackled Lukomski near the net.

“Yeah, we had a moment,” Lukomski said.

There were a lot of them at Glens Falls Civic Center in the NYPHSAA championship round’s first match. It attracted the four teams playing in the noon games, who couldn’t avert their eyes for their own warmups.

Haldane went wire-to-wire in the first game but Portville responded with similar dominance in Game Two.

It was the third that figured to be the steering point, 34-32, won by Haldane. It lost a 19-12 lead and then shook off six set points.

“Such a letdown,” Lukomski said.

But it turned out to be an odd type of buildup.

Portville let it rip from then on, dominating the fourth set (25-18) and acquiring a 7-3 lead in the fifth after a Lukomski ace.

The team had been battling some adversity for weeks. A fairly young group (five freshmen) lost senior outside hitter Emily Losinger, who was still home after an early November allergic reaction to medicine put her in the hospital.

She did not make the trip. Her teammates had a large color headshot of her as they snapped post-match team pictures.

“The biggest key was working together and staying positive,” Keim said.

Lukomski said it crossed her mind how Portville had to rally in last year’s title round, too. A senior captain also served four big points to get back in that match.

This time it was her turn. Lukomski had the ball on the baseline, trailing, 24-23, and her team recorded a block point to tie the score. Her ace gave the Panthers a 25-24 lead off a hard shot to the back row. A similar one for the next serve, and the point ended with Keim finding a deft angle from the front left of the net (by her team’s bench) to near the referee on the opposite side.

Keim clearly wasn’t playing it safe on that shot, heeding her coach’s advice after dropping the third set.

“We knew we were better than what we had played,” Lukomski said of the rally from the 2-1 deficit. “I knew we had the skills and the heart to play.”

Unverdorben joked that the team was so young, there were rotations the Panthers were trying to simply “get through” early in the season.

By the end, in a quiet hallway, the talk was of a three-peat.

“Well, nothing fazes these kids. And they’re workers,” she said with a big smile.

Eden girls’ volleyball makes it seven straight state crowns
By Staff Buffalo News
Sunday, November 22, 2015

The Eden girls volleyball team lift the Class C championship class after
defeated Millbrook to win the NYSPHSAA title in Glens Falls. Nick Serrata

GLENS FALLS – Meghan Ballou called it bittersweet to finish her volleyball career Sunday.

At least she had an extra, fairly unexpected set to soak it in a little longer. Eden won its seventh consecutive state title at Glens Falls Civic Center, the only glitch being a second-set breakdown that briefly tied the match.

All Eden did with the sets tied at one was to win 50 of the next 74 points on the way to a 25-19, 24-26, 25-11, 25-13 four-game cruise against Millbrook in the Class C championship match. Eden’s coach called it the most competitive championship match his team has had since dropping from the B class.

“I know the kids were really nervous about this beforehand,” coach Stephen Pierce said. “They didn’t want to be the ones where the streak ended. But I’m really proud of the way they handled it.”

The second set was probably the most newsy item, just because it was the least expected part of an otherwise fairly routine match.

The Raiders took the first set, 25-20, and it wasn’t even really that close. They were ahead, 19-13, in the second set when Pierce felt obligated to call timeout after Millbrook (Section IX) cut that to three points. The Blazers erupted off the bench when the referee’s whistle halted play.

And they weren’t done, pulling to within 24-23 on an ace and then getting another one to tie it.

Two blocks finished off the uprising.

“For some teams, that really shatters them,” tournament MVP Ballou said. “It made us want to work together and figure out how to overcome that challenge.”

Eden hustled to an 11-6 lead in Game Three. The start of Game Four earned the first eight points off Molly Breier’s serve.

“We played smart, that’s what got us back in it,” Milbrook coach Shawn Stoliker said. “We weren’t just hitting to hit or serving to serve. Everything had a purpose. But the unforced errors got to us in the last two games.”

Several championship-winning teams celebrated more boisterously, hitting the floor and becoming a pile.

Eden was more sedate. Sideline players jogged to the net to reach teammates who had obviously been through this a time or two.

Ballou has been on these teams for six years.

“Really, it’s not just expected, but it’s the outcome that we want,” she said. “We put a lot of work into this. … I wish I could make the season longer, I really do. It’s bittersweet.”

The only other listed seniors were Sarah Hooper and Carly DiNardo, meaning there’s room to grow.

Pierce could smile at some teaching moments that will help in 2016 and beyond. A couple of Millbrook serves caromed hard off the net and on to the ground for easy points in that second-set turnaround. That’s just bad luck. Pierce said there also were a couple of balls Eden froze on, “wishing they’d go out, and they were three feet in.”

But the biggest takeaway might have been how well the team played, particularly at the start of the match. Even Pierce was a little surprised how easily the points came.

“We were playing very well. We were on top of our game early,” Pierce said.

And they returned to that form to claim a seventh title.

WKBW Super 7
#6 - Lydia Lukomski, Portville Volleyball
WKBW.com Nick Filipowski
Friday, November 20, 2015

Crushed 19 kills in Portville’s Far West Regional win.

“Lydia played a great match against Honeoye leading the team with 19 kills. On a day that our team struggled at times, Lydia elevated her game and stepped up to lead her team to a win.”

WKBW Super 7
#7 – Lexi Novak, Williamsville East Volleyball
WKBW.com Nick Filipowski
Friday, November 20, 2015

Tallied 29 kills and added 31 digs in the Flames Far West Regional victory.

"Lexi is a complete player and student athlete. She is a large part of our team success thru her play and her leadership." – Scott Wright, Head Coach

Eden wins Super Regionals, make 17th straight state tournament
By: Aaron Garland, Sports reporter | Sports Hamburg Sun
Friday, November 20, 2015

Each year, Stephen Pierce noted, the pressure builds to replicate the success of the previous year. 

That’s because there is always a lot of it. 

This season has been no different for Pierce and his Eden girls volleyball team — both in terms of that pressure, and the outcomes. 

Sam Burgio’s 17 kills paced the Raiders to a 25-18, 25-13 and 25-21 victory over Section III Cazenovia in Class C Super Regionals Saturday (Nov. 14) at Chittenango High School, near Syracuse. It was the fourth consecutive year Eden downed Cazenovia in a regional match, and this win qualified the Raiders for the state tournament for a 17th consecutive time. 

There may be pressure to continue the inimitable, dominant streak, but Eden rarely shows it with the consistent delivery.

“There’s joy but also relief,” Pierce said of qualifying for states. “The girls played very well despite the fact that there was a partisan crowd there. we were far away from home. (Cazenovia) was big, and they had a great year, so it was nice to jump on them early.

“I’m very excited and grateful that we’re able to make it to states again. These girls have really worked hard.”

Not only will Eden be a participant at New York State Public High School Athletic Association Championships yet again, it’ll vie for a seventh straight state title. The Raiders have won the last four in Class C, with the other two coming while in B. 

“Even though we’re not senior-loaded, many of the main players who are underclassmen have been to the state tournament at least two times already,” Pierce said. “They know what to expect. They don’t have the look of, ‘Hey, we’re just glad to be here.’ That’s nice to have — players who are there to win it.”

Like the Raiders (32-9-1) generally do against taller teams, they limited the importance of height with outstanding service, ball control and volleyball IQ. 

The Lakers, Pierce said, have three girls over 6-foot tall, with one being 6-3, another 6-2 and a third right at 6-foot. Meanwhile, Eden’s tallest girl is senior Meghan Ballou at 5-11. But Eden was sound in all the areas it had to be, making the size a non-issue. 

Ballou finished with 13 kills and three blocks while teammate Alyssa Durski had 42 assists and three aces. Molly Breier added 14 digs and two aces in the win. 

“I thought we maintained our high level of play that we’ve been playing for the last month and a half,” Pierce said. “I’ve been happy with their play.

“(Cazenovia) has been getting better and better every year. We have to be really good at serving and we have to be good enough in ball control so that we’re never, or rarely ever, giving teams easy balls. We need to get teams out of their system. That’s what’s happened the last couple matches.”

Eden swept Section V LeRoy two days earlier in Far West Regionals.

The six-time defending state champion Raiders head to Class C NYSPHSAA Championships Saturday (Nov. 21) at Glen Falls Civic Center for pool play. The top two teams from the four-team pool advance to Sunday’s finals, which is a standard best-of-five match. 

Twitter:@Garland_SUN

Raiders fall to Will North in volleyball semifinals
By: Aaron Garland, Sports reporter | Sports Hamburg Sun
Thursday, November 19, 2015

Eden High School’s Declan Pierce (4) spikes the ball
 over the net during the game against Williamsville
North High School on Nov. 7. Photo / Karen Gioia 

This wasn’t part of the script. 

Robert Pierce thought his Eden boys volleyball team had the potential to reach states. The senior-laden bunch shared that view. 

And throughout the year the Raiders had the look of a team that could win Section VI Division II and get through regionals. They fared well in tournaments, didn’t drop a single game, let alone a match, in ECIC III en route to another league title and hung tough each time they faced superpower Canisius.

But a season filled with great promise ended in nail-biting, heartbreaking fashion in Saturday’s (Nov. 7) Division II semifinals versus 18th-seeded Williamsville North at Lackawanna High School. 

The Spartans — who compete in a robust division, ECIC I, before dropping down for the postseason, hence the deceiving seed — rode their athleticism and size to victory over third-seeded Eden. Will North outlasted the Raiders in a marathon match that possessed terrific play by both sides, 24-26, 29-27, 25-23, 17-25 and 25-19. 

The Spartans advanced to Wednesday’s finals versus Grand Island but the result wasn’t available at press time.

An apt word to describe the way Eden’s season wrapped up: crushing. 

“That one hurt. That one hurt,” Raiders coach Robert Pierce said. “We had a good year and a good bunch of kids. Will North is very athletic and they played tough all year. Most of the matches they lost, they were in the battle, so I knew it was going to be a tough go.”

After rallying from a 17-11 deficit to take Game One, the Raiders blew a similar advantage the next game. The Spartans extended Game Two beyond 25 and then won it despite once being down 18-10. 

The Raiders fought off two game points but also had a pair of their own that they didn’t capitalize on.

“We just got really shaky,” Pierce said. “We started overplaying balls. Instead of sticking to our job we got away from who we are. We had swings in Games Two and Three, to put it away. You have to deliver on those. When you get opportunities like that, you can’t let them go away.”

Calvin Nowicki had a mass of assists, nine kills and five aces for Eden while teammate Declan Pierce recorded 27 kills and four aces. Connor Basinski contributed 16 kills in a losing effort. That trio formed the foundation of a strong senior class that also includes Ben Wrzesinski, Mitch Mason and Frank Barnack. 

Collin Rigley chipped in eight kills for Eden. Wrzesinski added six of them.

Robert Pierce cited six missed serves in Game Five as a hindrance to Eden’s chances of winning a match that each team scored 120 points in. That’s how even it really was, and the Spartans proved their mettle at crunch time. 

“We got a little tentative on our serve and they passed better than us at the end,” the coach said. “They were swinging hard and our middle blockers couldn’t get over there. They were just a littlie bit bigger and stronger than us in the middle.”

The Raiders expected to play deeper into November — to, at the least, return to the Division II championship bout for a second consecutive fall. It’s that expectation, and the immense talent that made the hopes possible and realistic, that made the premature end to the season so painful. 

“I told my guys, ‘Don’t let that last game define who you are,’” Robert Pierce said. “For the seniors, I wish it would have gone a different way. It’s hard-working group of kids. We were a senior-loaded team, and it’s going to sting for a long time because I really think they wanted to do something special.”

Twitter: @Garland_SUN

Lady Chiefs’ volleyball season ended by Honeoye Falls-Lima
East Aurora Bee
Thursday, November 19, 2015

Iroquois’ girls volleyball team ran into a buzz saw Thursday in Section V’s Honeoye Falls-Lima, as the Rochester-area’s three-time sectional champion punched its ticket to the state tournament with its 25-11, 25-18, 25-11 victory in the Class B Far West Regional at Pioneer.

Despite serving well to the point of producing just one serving error for the entire match, the Lady Chiefs — who generated a significant amount of offense off the serve during its sectional run — were unable to find a weakness in HF-L’s serve receive.

“Honeoye Falls-Lima is a team that has very few weaknesses and has made very few mistakes over the last three seasons,” coach Mark Dubel said. “Throughout our playoff run we generated a lot of offensive points with our serve that allowed us to control each of the matches, but that wasn’t the case against HF-L. Everyone on their team passed our serves well enough so that they could get their offense running — and their middle hitter, Gillian Kurtic, and outside hitter, Grace Chlebove, were there waiting for the set. They could hit better than anyone we came up against in the playoffs.

“Both Gillian and Grace gave us trouble all night and they were the difference makers in the match,” Dubel continued. “We also had a hard time passing their serves, something we had been doing a lot better in the postseason than we did during the regular season. A lot of our passes were too tight on the net and [setter] Marina Caparaso was trying to make a play with Grace and Gillian right on top of the ball. It made it so we were slow and inconsistent in getting our offense up and running in response to theirs.”

Dubel noted that the Lady Chiefs were much more competitive in the second set, trading points back and forth with HF-L and ultimately leading by a point through the first 12, but HF-L was able to eventually settle in and pull away. Serve-receive struggles and tough times digging out HF-L’s hits returned in the third game as the Lady Chiefs were unable to ever gain firm footing against the tough Rochester foe.

“When we got that good first pass we were able to get some good runs and outside hitter Marissa Parker and middle hitter Elena Grossman had some really nice kills, but we just couldn’t do it consistently enough,” Dubel said. “And there were a lot of times that we got the pass and set that we needed, only to have the HF-L front row come up with a lot of huge blocks that just took some of the spirit out of us little by little. We seemed a little nervous and tight throughout the match, too, and didn’t move our feet enough to get to the ball, instead doing a lot of reaching and diving. That’s why our passing wasn’t as reliable as it had been.”

Grossman and Parker (two blocks) finished with a combined 15 of Iroquois’ 20 kills on the night. Caparaso dished out 20 assists, while Leah Krzemien had the team’s only two service aces for Iroquois, which loses nine seniors off a squad that finished the year 9-12 overall.

“Despite the loss and the disappointment we know that it is a quality team that we lost to and are focusing on the positives, like how we ended our season rolling through Section VI and taking down two undefeated teams along the way, and being the first team in program history to win an overall Class B Section VI championship,” Dubel said.

Talford named AMCC’s Women’s Volleyball Player of Year
Clarence grad, Medaille senior was Freshman of Year in 2012
by JASON NADOLINSKI Reporter, Clarence Bee
Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Simmone Talford recently closed the book on what was a record-setting college volleyball career by collecting her second major award from the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference: Player of the Year honors for the 2015 season.

The Medaille College senior and 2012 Clarence graduate said during a recent phone interview that she was “shocked” but “really excited” to be awarded the honor since her Lady Mavericks squad came up just short, 3-0, in the AMCC Conference Tournament final with Franciscan University on November 8.

“This really is a great way to end my volleyball career as a player,” Talford said. “The team and I really grew a lot this year, which made it a great experience. We all accomplished a lot and came a long way. It was a long ride for all of us this year, but we really are like a family. We’ve got each other’s backs.”

Talford certainly accomplished a lot herself this season. She paced the conference this year with both total assists (937) and assists per set (9.28), was fifth in service aces (38) and finished sixth in total blocks (65). The total assists mark is also the top single-season effort at Medaille — Talford holds the top four spots for single-season efforts in that category — and her 49 block assists for the year also ranks third among the program’s single season records.

Those numbers helped Talford, who was also the conference’s Freshman of the Year three seasons ago, cap her collegiate career as the Lady Mavs’ program leader in assists (3,719) and aces (164). While she just edged the former ace record holder by — appropriately — one, Talford blew away the previous record for career assists by more than double the old record of 1,850.

Talford also finished her career as a top-10 record holder in sets played (first, 431), block assists (second, 148), total blocks (third, 224), solo blocks (fifth, 76), digs (sixth, 857) and attack percentage (sixth, 22.9 percent).

“I wouldn’t change or trade anything about my experience for the world, because it has been awesome,” Talford said. “I’m very proud to have come as far as I have in volleyball by working hard, and by being willing to do all I had to do to better myself and my team. I grew a lot throughout my time at Medaille.”

Talford, who dedicated the remainder of her playing career — as a high school senior — to the memory of friend and club volleyball teammate Meghan Redenbach, believes that the inspiration she gained from playing out her career to honor her friend helped her achieve the success she did while at Medaille.

“My senior season was hard since it was my last year as a player, but now that my life is transitioning off the court I think I’ve made Meghan proud,” Tal- ford said. “She was a huge motivational factor for my career — I took on her high school number to be closer to her — and I think that motivation to do well in her memory helped me to break the assist record at Medaille.”

Talford, who has been helping to coach club-level players for a while, thinks she might at some point give coaching a try when it comes to tackling that responsibility at a full-time level. Until then, she believes that her legacy will ultimately help whoever steps into her role next season have a blueprint to follow to success.

“Whoever Medaille’s next setter is will have the opportunity to grow with the returning girls who’ve now had a chance to play at the championship level, and I think they’ll pass on to her what I brought to them,” Talford said. “With me not there, they’ll try to mold whoever comes in next to fill the same position in the same type of way I approached the game. I think that speaks volumes about what my teammates thought about what I brought to the team and to the setter’s position.”

email: jnadolinski@beenews.com

Clarence Boys volleyball program holds annual season-ending awards banquet
Clarence Bee
Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Clarence’s boys volleyball team officially closed the book on its 2015 season when it recently honored its best players — and the squad in general — at the team’s annual awards banquet.

Junior Henry Payne took home the coveted White Letter Award as this year’s team MVP. Payne led the Red Devils this year in spike attempts (1,266) and kills (640), both of which were the second-most in a single season in program history, while his team leading .504 kill percentage ranks in the top five all-time at Clarence for a single season.

“Henry is our school’s first ever NCAA Division I prospect,” coach Kevin Starr said. “He’s going to get a lot of attention from college coaches during the [Eden] club season and will very likely be heading to one of the nation’s top programs after his senior year.”

Jon Snitzer took home the Red Devil Player of the Year award, which goes to the senior who best represents Clarence boys volleyball, while Ben Janzow claimed the Michael T. Schlabach Award for leadership, sportsmanship and dedication.

Senior Dalton Squires, meanwhile, led the team in serve attempts and assists this season. His 893 assists tied for the second most in a single season in school history.

Junior Jake Ireland led the team in blocks, while eighth grader Teddy Payne paced the squad — which went 9-13 overall and 5-7 against ECIC I competition — in serve percentage and points serving.

“This year’s record is a classic case of the numbers not telling the full story,” Starr said. “The team that finished last in our league with an 1-11 record, Williamsville North, went on to beat three teams that had won their leagues with 12-0 records en route to taking the Class B sectional title. This just proves how strong our league was. It prepared us well for the Class A sectionals, where we beat Kenmore West in the quarterfinals before losing a dramatic five-set match to eventual Class A champion Orchard Park in the semifinals.”

Clarence, which did reach the semifinals of both the Sweet Home and Orchard Park Tournaments this fall, will bring back four full-time starters from this year’s squad next fall: Henry and Teddy Payne, Ireland and Nick Ciraolo.

The Red Devils will also have Tyler White, who started for much of the year, returning, while Clarence’s JV team won its league title with a 12-0 record, and Starr envisions a couple of that squad’s starters being able to step in and start next year.

“With so many top players coming back, and with the fact that many of the teams in ECIC I will be graduating their top players, we look like we may be the team to beat next year,” Starr said. “ Our mission for next year is clear: win the Section VI title and advance to the state final four for the first time in school history.”

Clarence Girls volleyball wins second straight sectional title
Victory in Far West Regional gives team first-ever state semi appearance
Clarence Bee
Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Clarence’s girls volleyball team made its mark on the history books Saturday when the Lady Red Devils took down Section V’s Webster Schroeder in this year’s Class AA Far West Regional at Pioneer High School to earn their first-ever appearance in the state semifinals.

“All sports programs have a culture, and [former coach] Robin Schifflet established a culture of excellence within this program years ago,” coach Mike Meyer said. “We’re just lucky to have such a wealth of talented female athletes in our school system. The girls in our school system, while they’re in middle school, see the success these teams are having and they start to want to be a part of that success. I just think that you’re now starting to see the momentum for all of the girls sports that has built up over these last 10 to 15 years.”

Clarence had the slightest of ideas about what to expect from Schroeder after having split with the Rochester-area squad in last year’s Frontier Tournament, but when the two teams took to the floor Meyer said that the result was “a game that was played at a very high level with multiple swings of momentum.” Webster took the first game, 25-18, but Clarence came storming back to take games two and three by 25-13 and 25-21 scores, respectively.

The Lady Red Devils briefly led with the score as late as in the teens during its game-four loss, but then dominated play for most of game five, including jumping out to a 13-5 lead at the break. Webster had one last run before Karley King ended things with two straight kills at 23 and 24 points in Clarence’s favor.

Meghan Neelon had another big game with 20 kills and seven aces, while King came up big when it mattered most to finish with 10 kills and five blocks. Defensive specialists Jaide Cummings and Lindsey Leipold served 31 times and combined for 30 digs, while Mary Owen and Melissa Ratzel combined for seven blocks.

Emiley Kuhn and Hannah Marlowe chipped in eight key kills, while Gretchen Weiss came in to serve three aces in six attempts.

“I’m just extremely proud of the girls,” Meyer said. “There were a bunch of momentum swings throughout the match and rather than let them defeat us, the girls remained resilient and composed; they fought back any time they faced a challenge. You’re not going to beat a team like Webster — or like any of the teams we’ll see in the state semifinals — in three games.

“We’ve been working on playing under pressure and not panicking, and as such I really just stand in awe at how composed they are,” Meyer continued. “They’ve just got so much composure and resilience to them. I looked at them before the fifth game and asked if there was anyone who didn’t think we could win, and they looked at me like I was crazy for asking as they said no. It was awesome.”

Clarence earned its spot in the Far West Regional after taking out league nemesis Lancaster on November 10 in straight sets to give the Lady Red Devils their second consecutive sectional championship after going 25 years without one.

Meyer and the Lady Red Devils knew they were in for a challenge in what was the third meeting between the squads, especially since Lancaster — which Meyer noted “had improved every time we have seen them — took Clarence to five sets in the second meeting between the teams.

Clarence was ready for Lancaster’s best, though, as the Lady Red Devils’ serving — not to mention their blocking and floor defense — kept the Lady Legends out of their systems for most of the night and led to its 25-15, 25-15, 25-14 victory.

Neelon led the team with 17 kills and added “many spectacular plays” on defense, Meyer said. King and Ratzel combined for 11 kills, while Owen had three big blocks. Kuhn and Marlowe both contributed key kills form the right side, while Cummings led the team with 15 kills and “refused to let the ball hit the floor,” Meyer said.

Leipold had her best serving night in serving a whopping 21 times in three games, while Maddie Christopher led the team with 18 assists and “continued to run a smart offense that makes use of all of her hitters,” Meyer said.

“Winning the sectional title is big deal,” Meyer said. “These girls had — and have — some very high goals for themselves this season but we couldn’t do any of them without winning at sectionals. It’s the first step for where we want to go, but it’s still very exciting for them and just a testament to the players we have to repeat. They’ve been playing year round since sixth or seventh grade, I think with this in mind. It’s so great to see all of their hard work pay off.”

Clarence now will now travel to Glens Falls this weekend for the state tournament, which consists of a four-team round robin format on Saturday to determine which two teams will vie for the state title at noon Sunday.

Clarence will begin its portion of the six-match round robin “tournament” at 8:30 a.m. by facing Connetquot. The Lady Red Devils will then face Shenendehowa in the third match and Pine Bush in the fifth match. Times will be determined for those two matches depending on how quickly things play out before them.

“Some of girls know some of the players from the other teams from club season, and we’re reaching out to people across the state to find stuff out, but the bottom line is if we play our game and execute our plan, it’s not that important who’s on other side of the net,” Meyer said. “We believe we can compete with anyone in the state if we serve the way we’re capable of, if we serve receive and play defense the way we’re capable of.”

(Reporter Jason Nadolinski contributed to this article.)

North boys volleyball wins first section title
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter Amherst Bee
Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Williamsville North’s Cinderella run in the Section VI Division II Boys Volleyball Tournament culminated with a 25-15, 18-25, 28-26, 25-23 win over top-seeded Grand Island in the Class B final Wednesday, Nov. 11 at Lackawanna High School.

The Spartans were the 18th seed and had previously upset second seed Williamsville South, eighth seed West Seneca West and third seed Eden. It was North’s first section title in school history.

"It was an unbelievable victory,” Spartans coach Mike Minnuto said. “We got there by playing the same way we have played all year. We were competitive in every game and eliminated the easy mistakes.”

Minnuto said Grand Island had a height advantage over his team, but he said his team played sound defense and ran a faster offense.

“I think that was a credit to the league we play in and the teams we play against,” Minnuto said.

Despite the height advantage, the Spartans established a presence in the middle with senior middle hitter Peter Battaglia, who finished with eight kills.

“Once we did that, it opened up the outside for Noah [Chojnacki], Ryan [Greene] and Connor Thomas,” Minnuto said. “We also served them really tough. We forced mistakes on their end just from serving them in certain rotations. They scrambled, which neutralized their big hitters because they weren’t able to feed their big hitters with ideal sets because of the scramble in serve receive.”

Chojnacki paced North with 15 kills.

Thomas added 10 kills, 12 digs and five blocks.

Senior setter Jeremy Schatz handed out 38 assists.

The Spartans’ season ended with a 19-25, 23-25, 25-17, 22-25 loss against Brighton in the Division II Far West Regional Saturday at Midlakes High School in Clifton Springs.

Minnuto compared the loss to facing a knuckleball pitcher after playing against a fastball pitcher.

“We were used to a speed tempo offense and their offense was slow and awkward,” Minnuto said. “In the end, it really threw our timing off. There was no doubt in my mind that we were the better team. We had a lot of balls go off our hands on blocks and miss the line by inches. Getting on the bus, I think everyone felt like we let a great opportunity slip away.”

Chojnacki led the offense with 15 kills. Schatz handed out 25 assists. Thomas posted five blocks and 10 digs. Battaglia tallied eight kills.

Other seniors on the roster include outside hitter Ryan Greene, Brian Pyrce and Dallas Brown.

Williamsville East girls volleyball records historic victory in Class A regional
Lady Flames repeat as section champs
PATRICK NAGY Sports Reporter Amherst Bee
Wednesday, November 18, 2015

For the second consecutive year, a girls volleyball team from Williamsville will be vying for a state championship.

Williamsville East downed two-time defending state champion Pittsford Sutherland, 25-20, 25-18, 17-25, 19-25, 25-20, in the Class A Far West Regional Saturday at Pioneer High School.

The win advanced the Lady Flames (20-0) to the state semifinals Saturday at the Glens Falls Civic Center.

East faces Kings Park, Burnt Hills-Balston Lake and Walter Panas in pool play matches starting at 3 p.m. The finals are Sunday.

Williamsville South won a state title in Class B last year.

“I was trying to figure out the last time an ‘A’ school went to states from this region and I couldn’t even pin down the last time it was,” East coach Scott Wright said. “Rochester has had a stranglehold on ‘A’ volleyball. It’s an honor to be the team that takes that away from them. They are a phenomenal team.”

Junior Lexi Novak’s eighth and ninth kills of the set closed out the victory.

She finished the match with 29 kills. She also contributed 31 digs and two aces.

“She gave everything she had,” Wright said. “She had no energy left. She came up huge for us in the last game.”

Novak opened the fifth set with a kill and three consecutive hitting errors by Pittsford-Sutherland extended East’s lead to 4-0.

Pittsford-Sutherland tied the set at 4-4 before two kills from Novak gave East a 6-4 lead.

The Lady Flames took an 8-5 lead on a long point that included a diving dig from sophomore setter Makayla Greenfield, which led to a kill by senior Carly Shifflet.

Greenfield finished the match with a season-high 52 assists and 19 digs.

Pittsford-Sutherland fought back, winning the next three points for an 8-8 tie.

Another kill from Shifflet gave East a 10-8 lead before Pittsford Sutherland took the next three points to take its first lead, 11-10.

For East’s next point, Sam Mendelsohn fought off a hard attack to keep the ball in play, Greenfield kept the ball off the floor, and Novak sent the ball deep into the Pittsford-Sutherland side of the court.

Pittsford-Sutherland did not handle the ball cleanly and the Lady Flames extended their lead to 14-11.

Shifflet recorded a kill, extending the lead to 15-11. Pittsford Sutherland then reeled off the next five points behind strong serving to retake the lead, 16-15.

After a long rally, a kill from Shifflet tied the match at 16-16.

In a long point that featured six digs from East, Novak’s kill down the line gave East a 17-16 lead.

A hitting error on Pittsford

Sutherland extended the lead to 18-16. A kill from sophomore Allison Jozwiak gave the Lady Flames a 19-16 advantage.

Another long rally, which included three digs from senior Mendelsohn, resulted in another Novak kill and a 20-16 lead, forcing Pittsford-Sutherland to take its final timeout.

A kill from Novak and a hitting error from Pittsford-Sutherland gave the Lady Flames a 22-16 lead.

A kill and block from Pittsford Sutherland cut its deficit to 22-18 before another kill from Novak found the back line.

Pittsford-Sutherland won the next two points, forcing East to call timeout and hold onto a 23-20 advantage.

Out of the timeout, Novak’s eighth kill of the set gave East a 24-20 lead and match point. Pittsford Sutherland’s back row attack was dug by Mendelsohn, who sent a perfect pass to Greenfield, who sent a perfect set to Novak.

“I really felt like we were in control of the fifth set,” Wright said. “They worked together as a team. It was nice to watch them pull it out. I feel they deserved it with all of the work they put into it.”

East started the match with a 7-2 lead and a six-point serving run from Steffan extended the advantage to 20-6.

Pittsford-Sutherland won 11 of its next 14 points to cut the lead to 23-17 but kills by Novak and junior Leah Orsini gave East a 25-20 lead.

Pittsford-Sutherland opened the second set with a 6-1 lead and East retook the lead 10-7 on a six-point serving run from Novak, which included two kills from Shifflet.

East extended its lead to 17-11 on kills from Shifflet, Steffan, Jozwiak and Novak, but Pittsford Sutherland got no closer than five for the remainder of the set.

East opened the third set with a 4-2 lead. Pittsford-Sutherland tied the set at 9-9 and then won the next five points and moved ahead 14-9.

A kill from Shifflet cut the deficit to 16-12 but East could not close the gap any further.

The Lady Flames trailed 12-5 to open the fourth set, forcing an East timeout.

East cut the deficit to 13-9 before Pittsford-Sutherland won the next three points. Two blocks from Steffan cut East’s deficit to 17-13, but Pittsford-Sutherland maintained its lead and won.

“We were in control of games one and two and they controlled the pace of play in games three and four,” Wright said. “They started hitting the ball from the right side a lot. The first two games they hit from the right side one or two times and then they started to go to the right side 50 percent of the time so they changed their lineup. They rolled the ball deep and switched up their game plan and it worked on us. It took a lot for us to adjust because they were executing at a high level and had us on our heels.”

Shifflet contributed 19 kills, five blocks and 33 digs. Also contributing for the Lady Flames included Orsini (4 kills, 3 blocks), Jozwiak (2 kills, block), and Steffan (4 kills, 3 blocks, 19 digs).

To reach the final, the top-seeded Lady Flames recorded a 25-15, 25-18, 25-23 victory over eighth-seeded Sweet Home in the final held on Nov. 10 at Pioneer High School.

It was the third year in a row the teams met in the final. East won in 2014 and Sweet Home won in 2013.

“We figured as defending champions and with a lot of good players returning that we would have a target on our back and to be able to work hard as a team and rely on our two senior captains and junior captain, we refused to lose,” Wright said. “It’s a pleasure to watch them go about their business and how into the match they are.”

East jumped out to a 13-4 lead in the first set and Sweet Home never got closer than eight points.

East hit .474 for the set and was led by Shifflet with six kills and Novak with five kills. Greenfield collected 12 assists.

East moved ahead 4-2 in the second set on a block and kill from Orsini.

With the score tied at 6-6, Steffan went on a six-point serving run, which included four kills from Shifflet.

Sweet Home cut the deficit to 16-14 but East responded by winning five of the next six points.

East won the set on a kill from Jozwiak.

Mendelsohn recorded 12 digs in the set.

“I give her the freedom to read the play and she is a dynamic player,” Wright said.

Sweet Home started playing its game in the third set and had East on the ropes, leading 13-6. East started its rally trailing 23-18.

A tip from Jozwiak found the floor, cutting the deficit to four. Mendelsohn stepped up to the service line and recorded an ace.

Three digs from Steffan, followed by a kill from Novak, made the score 23-21. A kill from Novak, followed by another ace from Mendelsohn, tied the score at 23-23.

Novak recorded another kill to put East ahead 24-23. An attack from Sweet Home did not clear the net for the Lady Flames’ victory.

“We had a little trouble adjusting to Sweet Home’s game plan in the third set,” Wright said. “We weren’t getting our first hit to where we wanted to, which allowed them to transition to offense a little faster.”

Shifflet (18 kills, 8 digs) and Novak (11 kills, 13 digs) paced the East offense. Mendelsohn led the defense with 31 digs and two aces. Greenfield registered 34 assists and eight digs.

Orsini (5 kills), Jozwiak (4 kills), and Steffan (4 aces) also contributed for the Lady Flames.

Seniors Rachel Reusch (22 kills, 10 digs, 3 blocks, 2 aces) and Claire Hiwiller (26 assists, 12 digs, 3 kills, 2 aces) led Sweet Home.

“We definitely didn’t start off the match as strong as we needed to but the girls played hard,” Sweet Home coach Breean Martin said. “A few of starters are used to that big stage and more of the players have never seen that big of a stage and that much pressure. It took us about a game and a half before the real Sweet Home team appeared on the floor. We took momentum in the third game and were shutting down their good players. Then we had one bad rotation and momentum switched sides.”

Sweet Home finished 12-6. Reusch and Hilwiller, four-year starters at outside hitter and setter, respectively, and Hannah Sigurdson, starting libero, are the only seniors on the roster. Reusch will play in college at Clarkson University.

“We had such a great season,” Martin said. “What they accomplished from the day they walked into the gym in August to when we lost was an impressive accomplishment. Our road to the finals was incredible and our team definitely faced and overcame some challenges to get to that final match. I am so proud of what they accomplished this season as a unit. We started executing efficiently in ball control and our serves were more consistent. I think the girls maximized their potential. Rachel and Claire went out on top in my opinion.”

Martin said while losing the seniors will be hard, there are still a number of returning players including junior middle blocker Tirzah Peters, junior outside hitter

Lindsey Hornung, junior defensive specialists Isabella Pullara and Kylie Prizel, junior setter/defensive specialist Camryn McCrossan, sophomore outside hitters Tessa Sutherland and Taylor Gould, and sophomore right side hitter Christie Ackendorf.

Raiders claim yet another Section VI title
By: Aaron Garland, Sports reporter | Sports Hamburg Sun
Wednesday, November 18, 2015

It may have appeared to be business as usual, but Stephen Pierce doesn’t like to use that phrase.

It hints that there is an assumption of winning, and that’s not the case — even if the success seems endless.

Pierce’s Eden High girls volleyball team’s latest triumph made it 16 straight overall sectional titles. The Raiders took care of Southwestern, 25-14, 25-17 and 25-7, to claim the Section VI Class C championship Monday (Nov. 9) at Pioneer High School. 

So that’s four postseason games, four sweeps by Eden. Despite the dominance, Pierce knows it took focus for his group to get it done once again.

Especially after Southwestern took the first game off the Raiders in last year’s Class C-1 final before Eden rallied. Especially since the Trojans, the C-2 champ, brought a bus full of boisterous backers with them to Pioneer. 

So, maybe it was more of the same business, but this was a new team, and it did the necessary work to keep the good times rolling. 

“I was definitely tense before this match,” Pierce said. “They gave us a real run for our money last year. They were a little more senior-loaded last year, but it’s a great program and they’re very athletic. I was ready for a fight. Fortunately we got hot at the end and were able to finish them off.”

Pierce noted that while Eden didn’t have its best serving night, the Raiders threw Southwestern off enough to take control of the match. That was evident by Game Three, when Eden ran away with it.

Meghan Ballou recorded four aces while freshman Paiton Basinski (three aces) and Megan Cassidy (two aces) were also factors on the service line. 

“We didn’t serve great, but they have a couple heavy hitters and we just thought that if we can keep them out of system — chasing balls down and then getting easier balls back — we would be in great shape,” Pierce said. “And that’s how it went.”

Sam Burgio led Eden (30-9-1) with 17 kills while Ballou had 13. Alyssa Durski set them up mostly, as she recorded 25 assists. 

“Even when our serves weren’t the greatest or we’d get into bad runs, we’d come out of it and get fired up,” Burgio said.

Burgio employs a jump-serve that can be downright devastating. 

Only it wasn’t as effective as usual versus the Trojans, Pierce said. But the Maryland commit was able to work around that and still be a handful for Southwestern. It was a telling sign of the extraordinary impact she can make. 

“She’s what you call a money player,” Pierce said. “Her serve was off, and when it wasn’t working early, we went with her secondary serve. She keeps other players calm. It’s nice to have a player, when you get into a bad run, she’s going to score points for you somehow.”

Pierce noted he feels that he has a young team each year, and this fall is no exception, with Eden rostering just three seniors. He realizes that thinner senior classes is the reality of a being a small school, and that asks for more out of younger players who, like they do every season at Eden, have delivered in 2015. 

And to Burgio, the payoff of that, the winning, never gets old. 

“It’s always so exciting to go through this with my team and become more of a family,” she said. “The game-wining point is always exciting. We’re a lot younger and a lot more inexperienced than we were last year. We have new people in new positions, and new people playing all the way around who aren’t used to it. But they’re coming along well and we have progressed a lot throughout the year.”

While Pierce will rely on underclassmen to carry out certain roles, he also has a veteran core — which includes Ballou, a senior, and juniors Burgio, Durski and Molly Breier, the libero — he trusts to do just about anything. Another senior, Carly DiNardo, started the sectional final match, too.

“When you have small schools, you have to have sophomores and freshmen and even an eighth grader to put on the roster,” Pierce said. “But we do have a veteran group that has been here a number of years. I have a junior group that has either been a starter or a role player, really since eighth grade. So at least they’re veteran in that regard.”

Eden is slated to face LeRoy of Section V in Far West Regionals Thursday (Nov. 12) at 8 p.m. at Pioneer. The winner advances to super regionals at 1 p.m. Saturday (Nov. 14) at Cicero-North Syracuse High School. 

Eden is vying for a 16th consecutive trip to states and seventh straight state title. 

Twitter: @Garland_SUN

Western New York 2015 Boys Top 10 Poll - 11/17/15
Buffalo News
Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Western New York 2015 Girls Top 10 Poll - 11/17/15
Buffalo News
Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Eagles fall to Will East, have short-lived stay in postseason
By: Aaron Garland, Sports reporter | Sports Hamburg Sun
Sunday, November 15, 2015

Lake Shore High boys volleyball coach John Coyle was plenty happy with how well his team developed from Day One to the start of November. 

There was a lot of progression, he said, but not quite enough to advance in the postseason. 

Coyle’s young Eagles, who roster just three seniors, fell to sixth-seeded Williamsville East, 25-13, 27-25 and 25-22, in the Section VI Division II prequarterfinals Nov. 3 at Will East. 

Lake Shore, the 11th-seed, held a 13-8 Game Two lead before the Flames scored seven of the next eight points get back in it. The Eagles also had a three-point midgame advantage in the third game that got away.

It showed the Eagles had the ability to win the match, just not the consistency. To Coyle, that boils down to a lack of experience. Given that, this season, including the playoff match, was imperative for the future. 

“Sometimes you catch breaks, sometimes you don’t,” the coach said. “We could have played better. It’s a game of mistakes and we just made more mistakes than they did. It came down to ball control and communication. It was kind of a growing year. We knew that going into it. This was good experience for them. We’re on the upswing.”

Junior Eric Senior led the Eagles, who finish 6-10 (6-6 ECIC II), with eight kills. He also provided effective service. Lake Shore senior Kyle Wishman contributed six kills while teammate Jared Himes had six kills and eight blocks. 

Tom Jaworski added seven kills in a losing effort. Owen Bitnun (11 digs) and Aaron Freeman (nine digs) gave the visitors solid defense. 

“They’ve improved a lot since the first day,” Coyle said. “It’s night and day. I was pleased with what they did, especially the last two weeks. They really started playing much more aggressive volleyball. We’ll be back next year a little stronger.”

With the second game going extras and the final one’s result being in doubt until the end, those momentary lapses in both cost Lake Shore an opportunity to move on. Take those away, and it’s much more even, with perhaps a different outcome. 

“Our passing kind of fell apart and we couldn’t get our offense going,” Coyle said. “If you can’t pass it makes it easy on the defense and (Will East) blocked well. We kind of sputtered on offense for four or five in a row. You can’t let those (leads) slip away. Especially in sectionals. It’s a growth thing, so hopefully the kids learn from this and remember it for next year and improve upon it.”

Last season, Lake Shore made the quarterfinals after losing only a couple ECIC II matches, so there was regression this year. But Coyle is encouraged after seeing his group come of age a bit as the fall went on. 

After the loss to the Flames, he recalled being in a similar situation not so long ago. Lake Shore was on the wrong end of a cyclical process, and a few years later, in 2012, the Eagles made state championships. 

So, maybe 2015 wasn’t their year, but Coyle, looking at his program as a whole, thinks a surge forward is in the works. 

In ways, this season was the setup for 2016. 

“We were in this spot probably six years ago where we had a lot of young kids coming up,” Coyle said. “You go up and down, up and down. We’re kind of at the point where we’re — I don’t want to say rebuilding but we’re regrouping. These kids are going to get stronger. Expectations start next year. Today was learning. Next year there are more expectations to do better.”

Twitter: @Garland_SUN

Falcons fall short of finals for first time in long time
By: Aaron Garland, Sports reporter | Sports Hamburg Sun
Sunday, November 15, 2015

The Section VI Class AA girls volleyball final was devoid of a familiar face this season. 

Frontier pulled one upset, but wasn’t able get another to reach where it’s been so often in recent years.

After sweeping third-seeded Orchard Park, the No. 6 Falcons advanced to the semifinals, where they lost to second-seeded Lancaster, 25-13, 26-24 and 25-17, Nov. 4 at Lancaster. 

It set up a Lancaster versus Clarence final — the first Class AA championship in at least six years that didn’t include Frontier as a participant. 

“Changes this year,” Falcons coach Debby Schruefer said. “Our division is tough, and as long as we play well, that’s all I ever ask. Show me pride, show me passion, and I’ll take whatever happens. The kids did a good job of that.”

Being seeded low placed Frontier in a largely foreign place. It was a first-round underdog versus OP, but the Falcons found the form that had them vying for a sectional crown every fall recently. 

While Frontier’s threat to return to the big game was spoiled by the Legends, Schruefer noted it was an accomplishment to turn the heads of detractors and not surrender its spot in the final without a say. 

“I think people doubted,” Schruefer said. “A lot of people probably thought we would end in quarterfinals. 

“The Orchard Park win was huge. They brought it all together and saw what they could do. They never stopped believing. It would have been easy to stop. Our season was a little different for us, but they never gave up. There were a lot of momentum shifts in that game, and they hung tough with that.”

Against Lancaster, Frontier, which wrapped 2015 at 5-12, didn’t have the most desirable start. 

With Game One tied at 1, the Legends’ Jenna Patterson stepped to the service line and didn’t leave it until Lancaster held a 9-2 lead. She was serving as Lancaster amassed eight consecutive points, several of which came on aces. 

However, the Falcons fired back in Game Two, starting it even better than Lancaster opened the match. MacKenzie Karwas registered 10 straight service points as Frontier jumped out to a 10-0 advantage. But the Falcons’ huge edge evaporated as it was soon 16-16, and Frontier didn’t recover, nestling into a 2-0 hole. 

“That’s kind of been the thing all year — we get a lead and then all of a sudden the other team would come back,” Schruefer said. “Sometimes we would get it back, other times we wouldn’t. I don’t know what makes us do that. Lancaster didn’t really make a big lineup change there. They just kept chipping away.”

Macayla Barry, Emma Booth and Sam Murray had four kills apiece for the Falcons. Kirstie Hall and Shelby Burgess each chipped in three kills for the visitors while Frontier libero Cami Duggan recorded seven digs and a pair of aces. 

“We struggled with ball control and communication,” Schruefer said. “Those were the two things that against Orchard Park, we did well with. When we talk we’re much more relaxed. It’s when we don’t talk that I know we’re in trouble.”

As Frontier fell behind 9-1 immediately versus the Legends, Schruefer had hope that her team could channel the version of itself that completed a big rally in a game against the Quakers two nights earlier. 

There was no such fortune. 

“We chipped away against Orchard Park,” Schruefer said. “They had a substantial lead and then we just settled down and got to work. I was hoping they were going to live in that moment again.”

Twitter: @Garland_SUN

Grand Island squashes Bulldogs’ bid for three-peat
By:Aaron Garland, Sports reporter | Sports Hamburg Sun
Saturday, November 14, 2015

There’s nothing Hamburg High boys volleyball coach Brian Carroll would have changed. 

There’s nothing the Bulldogs did to lose. 

It’s just that they went up against a bunch of giants. 

At the start of the season, Carroll considered Hamburg “the second-best short team in the area,” next to Eden. And the Bulldogs went through 2015 as if the height deficiency wasn’t a big deal, competing at a high level nightly in ECIC I. 

But when they met top-seeded Grand Island in the Section VI Division II semifinals Saturday (Nov. 7) at Lackawanna High School, the Vikings’ collection of 6-foot-5 players proved to be a tad much for 13th-seeded Hamburg. 

Grand Island prevailed in a tight match, 23-25, 25-22, 27-25 and 27-25, ending the Bulldogs’ attempt at winning a third straight sectional crown. 

“We had more skill but they were just bigger,” Carroll said. “There was one sequence where they blocked us four times in one play. We still covered it, we still set the ball up, we still swung, and they blocked us four consecutive times. We had to work almost that hard to win every point, whereas, when it was their turn to get a point, it was pass-set-hit.

“(Grand Island) didn’t look as fluid. They were just bigger.”

Jon Gordner paced the Bulldogs with 18 kills and an ace that sealed Game One. Senior Ryan Dils ran the Hamburg offense smoothly, dishing out 31 assists, while Dan Gunning was solid defensively, registering 13 digs. 

Alex Andrzejewski added eight kills in a losing effort. Dils also had a pair of aces. 

Hamburg, like it’s been most of the year, was sound in just about every aspect. It took care of what it needed to. But there wasn’t much it could do some plays, as Grand Island used its hulking size to its advantage. 

“We passed great, set great, ran great offense,” Carroll said. “(GI) didn’t pass very well — they threw the ball up, their big guys went and got it, and the bigger team won. They didn’t need to play a different game to win. They went with their strength. Pass the ball, throw it outside and see what happens.”

While there will be a Division II champion not named Hamburg for the first time since 2012, the Bulldogs didn’t surrender its perch atop the section easily, hence the four two-point results. 

Even in Game Four, Hamburg fell behind 17-20 and was soon up 23-22, and then got it to game point. Carroll noted there isn’t anything the Bulldogs failed to try. They just fell a little short to a “good, underrated team.”

“It’s heartbreaking but I think if you watched us play you’d say, ‘Boy, that team looks really good,’” Carroll said. “(Grand Island) got a lot of blocks and then the game ended on a block. That summarized how the night went.

“That’s the way it’s been all season. We’ve been through this so many times. They left it all on the floor.”

Twitter: @Garland_SUN

Frontier boys volleyball ousted by Lancaster in quarters
By:Aaron Garland, Sports reporter | Sports Hamburg Sun
Friday, November 13, 2015

Bill Faust said the two matches his Frontier boys volleyball team had against Lancaster during the regular season brought out the best in his group. 

He labeled it “high-intensity volleyball” and called them “two great matches.” Although the Legends took both, Faust wanted that same team to show up when the squads locked horns in the Section VI Division I quarterfinals Nov. 5 at Lancaster. 

Faust wanted that finest form of the Falcons to be recalled yet again. Even if it were, it would have been tough to stop Lancaster on this night. 

The third-seeded Legends came out firing, executing soundly in every area en route to a 25-15, 25-16 and 25-19 triumph over No. 6 Frontier.

Lancaster coach Jason Stang said it was the best the Legends have played versus a quality opponent all year. He had seen this sort of prowess against bottom-feeders, but not when squaring with a reputable program. 

The outside hitter duo of Kenny Rudz and Jay Baumann led the Legends, the 2014 sectional champ, with 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Baumann added four aces while Alex Kostek dished out 25 assists. 

“Their outsides are seniors and have been through a lot,” Faust said. “They’ve already won a sectional title. We had a tough time with them. They played very well. I have to give them credit. I thought our guys handled them well in situations but they have a bunch of seniors and know what to do. They have two key outside hitters and that’s tough.”

Matt Buss had a Frontier-high 11 kills while Zach Gerken chipped in 11 assists, five kills and two blocks. Alex Boglev had four kills for the Falcons, who finish up 8-12 and whose bid for a fifth sectional championship game appearance in six seasons came up short. 

The visitors erased a 14-9 deficit in Game Three, knotting the score at 16. It even got to 18-all before the Legends recorded seven of the final eight points. 

“In the third game I thought we did a better job of matching up by throwing in one of my other freshmen, Ben Taylor, and I thought he did a great job considering the pressure of the match,” Faust said. “I’m proud of my guys. They played tough. It was probably the best defense we played, at times. It was some of the best passing I have seen. We dug up balls that we hadn’t in a while. But they matched us and played well.”

In Taylor, Brandon Dunz and Brian Norsen, Frontier had three freshmen on the court at times. The Falcons lose three seniors, including Buss, a 6-5 outside hitter and captain, but Faust likes what’s in the program’s pipeline. 

“It’s looking promising,” Faust said. “We lose some but we gain a lot, and I don’t see a lot of other teams doing that. It’s a tough loss, but the future is bright.”

Twitter: @Garland_SUN

Eden girls volleyball team moves toward final four
Buffalo News Staff
Friday, November 13, 2015

Le Roy came in with an undefeated record. But Eden has won six straight state championships. Advantage, Raiders.

Eden made quick work of Le Roy (19-1), sweeping the Section V champion, 25-15, 25-11, 25-15, on Thursday night in the girls volleyball Class C Far West Regional at Pioneer High School.

In their pursuit of another state crown, the Raiders (31-9-1) rolled along again. Like its previous four postseason matches, Eden didn’t drop a set. However, the start didn’t quite meet coach Stephen Pierce’s high standards.

“I thought we were a little sloppy at first, actually, letting some balls drop,” he said. The Raiders’ only deficits were 1-0 and 2-1 in the first set. “I liked, at least, the way our middle was running. Sam Logan did a nice job getting there, getting some blocks on balls. We’re going to have to play a little better Saturday.”

Saturday is when Eden will meet Section III (Syracuse area) champion Cazenovia (17-1) in the Super Regionals at Chittenango High School. A win there would give the Raiders their 17th consecutive state final four appearance.

Maryland commit Sam Burgio led Eden again Thursday, delivering 19 kills. Meghan Ballou, who recently committed to Daemen, added 11 kills.

Ballou, one of only three seniors on the Raiders’ roster, knows how to handle a state title quest. She’s played on the varsity team since eighth grade.

“Every practice we come in focused and mentally prepared,” she said. “No one really gets rattled, no one gets nervous. We all play as a team.”

Logan finished with eight kills and two blocks, and Molly Breier had eight digs and four aces.

Eden’s meeting with Cazenovia on Saturday will be the fourth straight year the teams have played in a regional match. The Raiders swept the previous three.

“We have a very big team out of Syracuse ... who has been very successful this year,” Pierce said. “They’re always pretty formidable. We’ll have to continue playing well, if not better.

“You want to peak toward the end, so you hope that by now they know how to prepare themselves. They’ve been doing a good job.”

Iroquois’ Cinderella run came to an abrupt end with a 3-0 loss to seasoned Honeoye Falls-Lima in the Class B Far West Regional.

The three-time reigning Section V champion Cougars (15-5) overwhelmed the Chiefs early and went on to a 25-11, 25-18, 25-11 sweep.

“They’ve been here before, and we haven’t,” said Iroquois coach Mark Dubel, whose team emerged as the No. 10 seed to win the Section VI title.

Honeoye Falls-Lima jumped out to a 14-4 lead in the first set as Iroquois (9-12) made several unforced errors.

“We got behind, and we got down on ourselves,” said senior Elena Grossman, who led the Chiefs with nine kills.

HF-L’s only deficits were one point on four occasions in the second set, and a 5-0 run broke an 11-all tie. The Cougars opened a 6-0 lead in the final game and never looked back.

Two big hitters hurt Iroquois the most. Six-foot-4 Gillian Kurtic pounded out 19 kills, while 6-foot Grace Chlebove had 13.

Boys volleyball: Orchard Park back as sectional champ
Buffalo News
Thursday, November 12, 2015

Orchard Park’s Jason Manley hits the ball over Lancaster’s Connor Schultz and Kenny
Rudz in the Quakers’ five-set victory Wednesday. Photos by Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News

Lancaster was the team that stood in Orchard Park’s way in 2014. This season, the script has been flipped.

A year after going 0-3 against Lancaster, the No. 1 Orchard Park boys volleyball team completed its season sweep of the No. 3 Legends with a five-set victory in the Division I championship at Lackawanna on Wednesday.

In the Division II final, 18th-seeded Williamsville North upset top-seeded Grand Island in four sets for the school’s first Section VI boys volleyball title.

Orchard Park’s 25-22, 25-23, 15-25, 23-25, 25-19 win marks its 12th sectional title in school history and first since 2012.

“It feels real good for the parents and the kids,” Orchard Park coach Matt Lexner said. “A lot of them were on that team last year that got beat pretty good by Lancaster” in the final. “It feels good to get over that hump.”

Jason Manley and Spencer Eagleton were the main Quakers who carried the team over that hump. Manley recorded 24 kills while Eagleton dished out 54 assists.

Orchard Park had to play catch up in all three of the sets it won. Lexner said the team has played a lot of four- and five-set matches this year so it’s a mindset that the team has developed.

“We’ve been in that situation a lot,” said Lexner. “I don’t particularly look at the boys and think they’re resilient, but they’ve proven it time and time again and they don’t seem to panic.”

Lancaster opened the fifth with a 5-0 lead but were unable to sustain it. Orchard Park went ahead, 13-12. From that point forward, Manley took over.

“In the fifth game, he clicked it on,” Lexner said. “I got to admit it. I don’t like that, but he clicked it on. He started banging the ball, was aggressive and even when he wasn’t getting the kill he was jumping up with a block.”

Williamsville North’s Spartans continued their Cinderella run with a 25-15, 18-25, 28-26, 25-23 win over the Vikings.

“I brought these kids up as sophomores,” North coach Mike Minnuto said. “I said it was going to be a three-year process and I knew going into this year that the stars were aligning a little bit with how we were playing. They worked hard, they never gave up and you saw the results tonight.”

Times were tough for North throughout the regular season competing with the likes of Orchard Park, Lancaster and Clarence in the rugged ECIC I division. The wins were scarce, but the experience of playing against a school from the Western New York Top 10 seemingly every night prepared the Spartans for the playoffs.

“At the beginning of the season, we could be a mental team,” North captain Connor Thomas said. “Ever since the playoffs, we just put our own differences aside and worked as a team. And when we did that we started turning it on and keeping it on. We started digging back from big deficits because we knew we could do this.”

Noah Chojnacki led the team with 18 kills, Jeremy Schatz had 40 assists and Thomas chipped in with 11 kills and 9 digs.

The Quakers and Spartans will travel to Midlakes (Rochester area) on Saturday for a Far West Regionals showdown against their respective Section V opponents, which will be determined Thursday.

“Rochester has had the better run of it,” Lexner said, “but I think if we go out and serve tough and pass then we’ll be in this match coming up on Saturday.”

Iroquois girls volleyball upsets Maryvale in ‘B’ final
by JASON NADOLINSKI Reporter East Aurora Bee
Thursday, November 12, 2015

Power outage of no concern to Hamburg in 2015
By: Aaron Garland, Sports reporter | Sports Hamburg Sun
Friday, November 6, 2015

This year, when the Hamburg High boys volleyball team would take on fellow ECIC I program Lancaster, Bulldogs coach Brian Carroll felt his squad was disadvantaged in one area. 

“We don’t have the power hitters other teams have,” Carroll said. “Lancaster’s fourth guy hits more powerfully than our best guy.”

In one particular match this season against the Legends, that dynamic didn’t have much of an effect. Hamburg lost in four games, yes, but all three of them needed at least 25 points. While Lancaster, the defending Section VI Division I champion, owned a seemingly decisive edge, Hamburg made the match nearly even, and not one bit lopsided.

“We have a game where we can match other teams,” Carroll said. 

Hamburg just had to spend some time finding that game. 

With the Section VI Division II postseason getting underway just before press time, the Bulldogs are the team to dethrone as they entered as back-to-back sectional champions. 

It’s a new look compared to last fall, though. All of 2014’s starters graduated with the exception of standout setter Ryan Dils, a senior. 

Despite the experience and height that was lost, the Bulldogs reshuffled and found a new style. One that’s productive. Hamburg, which plays an ECIC I regular-season schedule with larger schools, finished 5-7 in the league and entered the Division II playoffs as the 13th-seed. 

The Bulldogs downed Holland in the playoff qualifiers Friday (Oct. 30) and took on fourth-seeded North Tonawanda in the prequarterfinals Tuesday (Nov. 3) but the result wasn’t available at press time. 

Carroll said that down the stretch Hamburg’s passing and defense began thriving, and that formed the team’s identity. When those two phases are clicking, Hamburg will be a tough out. 

“They have an identity now and they’re not worried about finding that — they know what they are,” Carroll said. “We’ve been steady the whole season. I think a lot of teams had their best match of the season against us. That’s a compliment because we play such a good game consistently.”

The Bulldogs have been at their best the last month, starting with a win at Frontier in early October, Carroll said. Since then, Hamburg has trotted out a lineup that’s produced results.

“That was pretty much our entry into what we’ve been the second half of the season,” Carroll said of the Frontier tilt. “That was just the showcase where I could say, ‘Hamburg is back.’”

Dils’ pinpoint accuracy at setter has taken a lot of pressure off the hitters, Carroll said. The senior has run the Bulldogs’ offense smoothly.

“Our scrappiness, that’s definitely our motto,” Dils said. “We’re not that powerful team that we were last year.”

Marcus Wloch and Jacob Couzens give Hamburg size in the middle. They’re both 6-foot-5. 

Jack Lillin, the 6-foot-4 senior, is solid in the middle, too, while senior Austin O’Shei’s switch from the right side to left side has been beneficial for him and the team. Junior Alex Andrzejewski has found comfort playing right side. 

Jon Gordner’s emergence in 2015 has made a huge difference, too. Gordner was a JV call-up for the 2014 playoffs and he proved he could handle the spotlight by registering five kills in the sectional final — his first varsity action ever. 

Gordner, a junior outside hitter, rolled that right into this fall. Carroll called the junior perhaps the team’s most well-rounded player and definitely the team’s most improved. 

“Knowing I can do what I did last season, and even surpass that, I try harder every day in practice,” Gordner said. “A lot of it is remembering what we did last year. Remembering how we jelled as a team. Considering we have a lot of young talent I think we’ve worked well together. We’ve kept the ball alive.”

From the start, Carroll knew this could be a team that keeps the ball alive, even though he had a cast of first-year starters. The coach didn’t worry about the perception that Hamburg might experience a setback.

“I looked at the guys the first day of practice and said, ‘We have a good team. Don’t you worry about what we’re not, let’s focus on what we are,’” Carroll said. 

“I’ve been coaching a long time and honestly this is one of my favorite teams ever. They have each other’s backs and that’s why they’re as good as they are.”

•••

Not only is Hamburg’s varsity well-off right now, the future looks bright, the foundation sturdy. 

The Hamburg JV boys volleyball team had a prosperous season, which concluded with a victory in the first-ever Western New York JV Volleyball Championships Oct. 24 at the Buffalo Niagara Court Center in West Seneca. The 24-team tournament featured the premier squads in the area, with the Bulldogs prevailing as king of it. 

Hamburg downed Canisius in the finals of the best-of-the-best tourney. That win came a week after the Bulldogs made a statement by defeating that same Canisius team, a perennial power, both on JV and varsity, in the championship of their own tournament. 

Two weeks, two big tournament victories, and the distinction of the area’s top JV team in 2015. 

“We’re never rebuilding, we’re always kind of reloading,” second-year Hamburg JV coach Kevin Zack said. “The JV guys scrimmage a lot with varsity to get them up to varsity speed. (Carroll) demands a lot but the kids see how much he puts in so they just give it back. It’s a program thing.”

Both title-match wins against the Crusaders went the full three games. 

“It was a thrilling match,” Zack said of the finals of the Hamburg tournament. “The kids were down a handful of times in that last game by four points and in a 15-point game that’s tough to overcome. But they pulled it off.”

Twitter: @Garland_SUN

Volleyball Lions earn VI victory
Schneider, Denniston and Donorovich lead the way over Niagara Falls
Lockport Union- Sun Journal, BY JOHN D'ONOFRIO john.donofrio@lockportjournal.com
Friday, November 6, 2015