Churchville-Chili honored girls volleyball seniors Kayla Wiest, Sarah Russell, Melanie Burley, and Andrianna Gruttadauria prior to their final regular season home match, which they lost to Gates-Chili 17-25, 9-25, 22-25.
The Saints fell behind by as many as nine points during the early stages of the first game before they closed to within five points of the lead thanks to a pair of kills from sophomore Camryn Karelus. Another kill from Karelus plus one by junior Amy Meisenzahl plus a late ace served by junior Sophia Orologio weren’t enough to overcome the early deficit.
Junior Jaycee Karelus jump-started the Saints to a 2-0 lead with consecutive aces to start the second game before the Spartans went on a 10-0 run which was stalled as junior Demiana Hoch had a kill and block for point on consecutive plays.
The Saints rallied in the third game as Jaycee Karelus followed an ace by Russell and a kill by Orologio with two kills and an ace of her own to tie the contest 9-9. Later trailing by as many as five points, sophomore libero Alyssa Rich registered a pair of aces and Orologio another kill to again tie the game 19-19. But Gates-Chili managed to eke out the game to secure the sweep.
Rich led the defense with 13 digs and added two assists and two kills for the Saints while eighth-grader Skylar Jehlen dished out a team-high ten assists. Jaycee Karelus had four aces, three digs, and two kills, Camryn Karelus four kills with all coming in the first game, Orologio three kills, three aces, and three digs, and Russell had three digs with one ace.
The Saints finished with a 5-5 record in Division 2, good for third place, and were seeded ninth for the Class B Section V playoffs with a quarterfinal match against eighth-seed Wilson.
