Watertown's White rises to occasion

Amanda White recorded her best performance of the season to help Watertown High School capture its 16th consecutive Frontier League "A" Division playoff championship with a victory over top-seeded Carthage on Saturday at Case Middle School.

"I told Amanda before the match, 'I need the best game you've ever played,'" Watertown coach Robin Boomhower said. "And she did, she did an awesome job."

In the "B" Division, No. 2 South Jefferson surprised top-seeded Lowville with a three-game sweep. And in the "C/D" Division No. 1 Beaver River handled No. 3 South Lewis in four games.

The Cyclones, who lost to Carthage twice earlier in the season, registered scores of 25-21, 19-25, 25-22, 25-23 to defeat the regular-season champs.

Watertown trailed for most of the fourth game, but after a streak of Carthage errors, White finished on three consecutive plays to help Watertown take the lead at 22-21. Carthage's Katie Miller then tied up the game with a powerful hit, but Watertown eventually closed out on a hit from White.

White finished with 17 kills, three aces, three blocks and seven digs, while Kat McKinney contributed 27 assists, 18 digs and two kills, and Zoe Garry supplied 11 kills, four aces and six digs.

Garry said her team's win was no surprise to her and that her squad worked on ball placement rather than power to pull off the upset.

"The two matches we played against them earlier in the season went to five games and they were extremely close," she said.

The Cyclones focused on minimizing the effectiveness of Carthage's Jessica Dobson-Tufo, who produced 10 kills and two aces.

"Our main thing was trying to break Jessica's serve," Garry said. "She has a really hard top-spin serve, and when you let her go on rallies, their team gets (psyched) and they work off that. We just ended the serving rally, and we got behind the serve and played defensively."

Also playing key roles for the Cyclones (11-5) were Bridget Hovendon with eight kills and 13 digs, and Delyn Dois with 29 digs.

Miller provided six kills, three aces and two blocks, while Alex Dalbey contributed 23 assists and two kills, and Hannah McGregor added seven kills for Carthage (13-3), which earned the league's sportsmanship award.

"In my 23 years of coaching, 20 of them at Carthage, this is one of the best groups I've coached," Comets coach Angie Robbins said. "They're an incredible group, and they make me extremely proud of Carthage."

SOUTH JEFFERSON 3, LOWVILLE 0

The Spartans came into this matchup with a plan. In order to beat the Red Raiders, they had to limit Hayley Strife's effectiveness.

Mission accomplished. South Jefferson swept Lowville in three games, 26-24, 25-20, 25-23.

Last weekend, a matchup between these teams resulted in a victory in four games for regular-season champion Lowville.

"I think that inspired us today to play a little bit harder and prepare more seriously," South Jefferson coach Warren Denny said. "We needed to polish up our passing game and play better defense, and most definitely and importantly block Hayley Strife, slow her down. She's a powerful hitter."

South Jefferson's Danielle Bartlett and Samantha Snyder teamed up to double-block Strife.

"I think it worked really well," Bartlett said. "It helped us force a lot of errors."

Bartlett, Snyder and Brooke Laisdell combined for eight blocks.

"They're a really offensive team, and we had a difficult time with passing," said Strife, who finished with 14 kills. "I think that led to our loss."

Snyder finished with 14 kills and three blocks, while Bartlett tallied eight kills and two blocks, and Laisdell contributed five kills and three blocks. Emily Pfeil handed out 19 assists, and Heather Gordinier served four aces for South Jefferson (15-4).

The victory helped ease the sting of losing out on the season crown.

"It makes that other title not even matter to us anymore," Bartlett said.

Katie O'Brien provided six kills and 15 assists, while Lahni Duffer contributed eight kills and 11 assists, and Katie Peters registered 22 digs for Lowville (12-4).

BEAVER RIVER 3, SOUTH LEWIS 1

Rebekah Andre generated 21 kills to help power the Beavers to a 25-10, 25-15, 21-25, 25-14 victory over the Falcons.

It appeared Beaver River might breeze through all three games, but in game 3 a Danielle Brown tip at the net gave South Lewis its first lead at 9-8. The Falcons took control for much of the remainder of the game and scored the final point on a bad Beaver River serve. But South Lewis couldn't keep the momentum flowing as the Beavers took the lead in game 4 and never relinquished it.

Taylor Grunert posted 16 digs and 18 service points, including nine aces, and Sloane Zehr and Cristen Davis each distributed 17 assists. Alexis O'Donnell provided 10 points and seven kills, Lydia Gydesen supplied eight points and 10 digs, while Davis also had four kills for Beaver River (16-1).

Beaver River, which last season didn't advance to the final for the first time in 30 years, tore through league competition this season.

For South Lewis coach Ed Griffiths, it was the first time his team had advanced to the final in his 10 years of coaching.

Kat Oaks generated 10 kills to help guide the Falcons. Danielle Brown and Miranda Gokey pitched in with 13 and 10 assists, respectively, and Heather McManus registered six kills for South Lewis (9-11), which upset No. 2 Thousand Islands in a semifinal game at Clayton.

nNOTES: The sportsmanship award that was won by Carthage is an honor voted on by the league's officials for conduct displayed throughout the season. ... Also honored was volleyball officialBecca Harefor her 18 years of service. Hare is retiring from officiating to focus on coaching eighth grade modified volleyball at South Jefferson.