State volleyball titles to be decided

PHOTOGRAPHER: Erica Miller

Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake volleyball coach Gary Bynon has a team in the state final four for the 17th year in a row.

Section II will be represented by five teams at the state girls’ volleyball championships scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls. Here are a few things to know.

WELL REPRESENTED

Shenendehowa (Class AA), Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake (Class A), Broadalbin-Perth (Class B), Voorheesville (Class C) and Mayfield (Class D) qualified for the final four tournament by winning regional championships last weekend. This will be the fourth year in a row that Section II has a team in each of the five classes. Shenendehowa will be making its fifth straight final four appearance, and Burnt Hills will be making its 17th consecutive trip to the season-ending showcase. Voorheesville also returns from the 2017 field.

WHO ELSE IS COMING

Rounding out the final four groups will be Victor-V, Long Beach-VIII and Pine Bush-IX in Class AA, Niagara-Wheatfield-VI, Wantagh-VIII and Cornwall-9 in Class A, Westhill-III, Owego-IV and Bayport-Blue Point-XI in Class B, Portville-VI, Millbrook-IX and Mattituck-XI in Class C, and Bainbridge-Guilford-IV, Panama-VI and Mount Academy-IX in Class D.

Owego (Class B), Portville (Class C) and Bainbridge-Guilford (Class D) were among the champions in 2017.

TITLE HISTORY

Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake was the last state champ from Section II in 2015 when it swept Walter Panas in the Class A final, and secured its sixth New York State Public High School Athletic Association flag. Burnt Hills also earned state tiles in 2002 (Class B) and 2004-05 and 2011-12 (Class A). Burnt Hills is the only Section II team to be crowned state champ since Lake George secured the Class D banner in 2001.

SCHEDULE

Pool play Saturday will be held in two waves. The Class AA, B and D teams will start at 8:30 a.m., and the Class A and C teams will begin at 3 p.m. Each team will play the other three in its class in two-set matches to determine Sunday’s title participants. Sunday’s championship matches are at 10 a.m. (Class D), noon (Class AA, B) and 2 p.m. (Class A, C).

LAST YEAR

Shenendehowa reached its first state championship match in 2017 before bowing to Connetquot 25-17, 20-25, 18-25, 25-16, 25-19 in the Class AA final. Shenendehowa went 5-1 in pool play with a split against Connetquot.

Hudson Falls went 4-2 in Class B pool play before a three-set loss to Owego in the final. Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake went 0-6 in Class A pool play, Voorheesville went 1-5 in Class C, and Argyle went 3-4 after dropping a tiebreaker set against Bainbridge-Guilford.

SPARTANS GO FOR TWO

Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake is the only school sending teams to both the girls’ and boys’ state volleyball championships this weekend. The boys will play at the Albany Capital Center on Saturday, with pool play starting at 10 a.m. Burnt Hills will see action in Division 2 with Eden-VI and Bellmore-JFK-VII. The same trio met in 2017 and each team split with the others in pool play. Bellmore-JFK beat Burnt Hills in a tiebreaker and Eden advanced to the final based on points scored. Eden went on to win the championship.

Reach Gazette Sportswriter Jim Schiltz at 518-395-3143, [email protected] or @jim_schiltz on Twitter.