Spike fest in Forestville

FORESTVILLE – For the fifth straight year, the Forestville Lady Hornets held their annual Spike Out Cancer girls high school volleyball match.

Through Chinese auctions, 50-50s, bake sales and T-shirt sales, the annual event has raised more than $20,000.

“I think it’s a great cause,” Forestville coach Chelsea Caccamise said. “The girls love it. We love having all the fans. It’s a bigger fan base than a usual match. It’s good to get the girls aware of what all this is for. They love it. We donate to the breast cancer funds. They make all the bake sale items and decorate. It’s all their service to the event.”

The North Collins Lady Eagles spoiled the special night with a three-set sweep of the Lady Hornets, 25-16, 25-21, 25-22, thanks to the solid play of Arrika Bley, who finished with 13 kills, three aces and two digs.

In the first set, the visitors held a slim 5-2 advantage before going on a 7-0 run to quickly make the score 12-2.

“We have struggled with that a lot this season,” Caccamise said of falling behind early. “We give away points in the first set. It’s usually our own errors. We are still working on it and struggling with it.”

The closest Forestville came to cutting the deficit was 18-10.

In the second set, the young Lady Hornets showed flashes of being a dynamic team with solid defense and several blocks, resulting in points.

The Lady Hornets jumped out to an 11-4 lead and slowly increased it thanks to blocks from Faith Mierzwa and Brooke Ostrye.

With the home team ahead, 14-5, both teams went on an impressive volley which saw the ball go over the net more than 13 times before the Lady Hornets earned the point for a 15-5 advantage.

“Forestville always hustles,” North Collins coach Dave Burgstahler said. “They are notorious for those long rallies. We talked about not giving up after that. It was a really long rally. They always get those long rallies. I’m trying to get my girls to be like that.”

However, instead of gaining momentum from the point, it was the Lady Eagles who responded and slowly started to chip away at the lead.

“I always tell the girls, ‘When you’re are up, if you give a good team hope, they will take that hope and win that set,'” Caccamise said. “That’s what we did. We thought we had the set in the bag. North Collins is a great team and they came back.”

Bley led the comeback with a pair of blocks and a spike as the Lady Eagles took a 20-17 lead.

“We continued to work hard,” Burgstahler said. “Bley stepped up. At one point she was putting every ball away. We started going to her until they stopped her. Eventually they changed their defense up and Angela Filkov distributed the ball well and made better decisions. She started moving the ball around.”

From there, the Lady Eagles went on for the 25-21 victory.

In the final set, the teams were tied, 5-all, early on. However, North Collins slowly built a lead, but Forestville never let the lead get out of hand, as it trailed just 16-13 at one point.

The Lady Hornets battled til the end as they trailed, 24-22. However, a spike by Bley put the match away for the sweep.

Filkov contributed in the win with 26 assists, three digs and two aces while Jasmine Filkov had six kills, one ace and 13 digs.

The Lady Hornets were led by Ashley Vanbuskirk’s 19 assists, 10 digs, three blocks and two aces. Mackenzie VanZile finished with five kills and six digs while Ostrye had four kills, four blocks and nine digs. Mierzwa finished with two kills, seven blocks, eight digs and two aces in a losing effort.

“It’s so difficult for me to see the potential and see them lose like this,” Caccamise said. “I know it’s there and they know it’s there. They see it, too. It just doesn’t come out. I don’t know what holds it in. As young as they are, they have so much potential. We just have to come together as a team at the right time. They are progressing and getting better 100 times over from the beginning of the season. We did really well at times against them, but I know if we would have played like we did in those spurts for the entire match, we would have won.”