Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake boys volleyball reaches state finals; girls teams bow out in pool play

The Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake boys volleyball team lost to Section 8 champion Bellmore-JFK in the Division 2 finals of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships Saturday, Nov. 17, at the Capital Center in Albany.

Bellmore-JFK won the first two sets 25-21 and 25-22. BH-BL came back to win the third set 25-14 before Bellmore-JFK closed out the match with a 25-20 victory in the fourth set.

BH-BL had a tough road to get to the finals. After splitting their first two games of pool play against Eden (Section 6), the Spartans played the Raiders in a tiebreaker set. BH-BL rallied from a 20-17 deficit to take a 23-21 lead and had two set points, but Eden rallied to win the tiebreaker 28-26.

BH-BL needed Bellmore-JFK to sweep Eden in order to have a shot at making the finals without the tiebreaker coming into play. The Cougars accommodated the Spartans by taking down Eden twice to give BH-BL the opening it was looking for. Needing to win one of the two pool play sets against Bellmore-JFK, BH-BL defeated the Cougars 25-21 in the first set to earn its berth in the finals.

BH-BL junior Jake Baker and senior Derek Haughey were named to the all-tournament team.

At the NYSPHSAA Girls Volleyball Championships in Glens Falls, all five Section 2 representatives bowed out in pool play. Class C champion Voorheesville came the closest to making the finals after tying Millbrook (Section 9) for the second-best record in pool play at 3-3. The Blackbirds battled hard before Millbrook pulled away for a 25-16 victory in the one-game playoff.

Voorheesville forced the one-game playoff by sweeping Mattituck (Section 11) 25-23, 25-21 in its final two sets of pool play. The Blackbirds split their two sets with Millbrook and were swept by Portville (Section 5), which went undefeated in pool play.

Shenendehowa (Class AA) posted a 3-3 record in pool play, while Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake (Class A) and Mayfield (Class D) finished with 2-4 marks. Broadalbin-Perth (Class B) was swept in its six pool play sets.