(Photo provided by Chris Tarantino/Cortland Voice).
Cortland Jr/Sr. High School had a loud and packed house last night, as their varsity volleyball team defeated Chittenango in four sets. With the win, Cortland advances to the Section III Class A Finals.
The Cortland Tigers came out on a roll, as they took the first two sets 25-15 and 25-16. The Chittenango Bears began to make a comeback by winning the third set 25 to 18, despite the Tigers keeping it close.
“We know that Chittenango is a good team, and no good team is going to lay down and let you have it,” said Cortland Head Coach Cheri Olson. “We had to get that mentality back that we had on the first two sets.”
It was anyone’s game in that fourth set, as both teams were toe-to-toe. By the end of the set, the score was 24-24, but Cortland was able to pull it out to win 26-24.
“The energy was much higher in the fourth set,” said Cortland senior Tori Cruz. “We all got down on each other on the third, but we got it back up.”
“Chittenango is definitely one of the better teams in the league, so it was good practice for us to play against teams with that much skill,” added Cortland senior Kaicy Olson.
Olson led the Tigers in kills with 16 kills (she also had 12 digs). Cruz had 14 digs, while Grace Call recorded 24 assists and seven digs.
Up next, the Lady Tigers will be disputing the Section III Class A Finals against #1 seed Carthage at Jamesville-Dewitt on Saturday, February 15th at 3pm.
“They (Carthage) are a good team, and they are undefeated,” Coach Olson stated. “They’re going to want to go for the undefeated season, and we would love to be the ones to take them down.”
Here are some game highlights and post game interviews:
