Girls varsity basketball

The girls’ varsity basketball team opened their season of play with a non-league game at Adirondack last Thursday, Dec. 8.  

Adirondack used their superior height advantage to easily defeat the Eskimos as they doubled the score on Old Forge. Adirondack had already had several scrimmages before this game with Old Forge having none which gave them an even greater advantage.  No matter how you look at this game, Adirondack was simply too good for our team.  It certainly did not come as a surprise to anyone that a Class B school should beat a Class D school, especially in a major sport. However, Old Forge can take away the experience of playing a good team and hope it will help later on.  

It was a group of nervous girls that took the court Thursday as only one girl has had any varsity playing experience. Hopefully, Adirondack will be the strongest team that they will have to play this year.  

The team picked up their game better as the game progressed, but nerves interfered with their play and their shooting was characteristic of first game play. Adirondack had four girls that were taller than our tallest player and it was very hard to get a good shot over their defense. However, the team did have some quality play. Katie Connell led her team with nine points and she also had five blocked shots. Playing for the first time in two years due to a knee injury, Haley Josephson had eight points, four steals and seven rebounds. Samantha Notley had five points and two steals, Kayla Yuckel had four points and Elizabeth Getty and Mercedes Rice each had two points. Rice also had nine rebounds to lead her team in that department.

Their next game will be played at Little Falls tonight, Dec. 13.  This is another non-league game and it is against another large school making their schedule extremely difficult.   

Boys varsity basketball

The boys’ varsity basketball team played one game this past week and that was a non-league contest at Little Falls last Friday, Dec. 9.  

After winning the Remsen Tip-Off Tournament the week before, the team got a boost of confidence, but that was not going to help them against Little Falls. The tournament was made up of four Class D schools who ranked in the bottom half of Class D in terms of enrollment. Little Falls is a Class C school, three times larger than these schools.  In addition, Old Forge was missing one of their best ballplayers, Sam Waterbury, out with an ankle sprain.  

The game was never a contest as Little Falls rolled to a very easy victory over the Eskimos. Old Forge could not get any kind of offense going and could not prevent Little Falls from doing whatever they wanted on  their offensive end. It was the kind of match up that did neither team any good to be playing each other.  

Dakota Earl had a career high eight points to lead his team in scoring along with Calvin Risley, who also had eight points. Ethan Kress followed with three points, Greg Hunkins had two and Kenny Pastore had one point.  

The team will have two tough league games this week, one is a home game against Oriskany on Wednesday, Dec. 14, and the other is an away game at Poland on Friday, Dec. 16. The home game Wednesday will start at 6 p.m. with the junior varsity contest.

Boys junior varsity basketball

The boys’ junior varsity basketball team played their lone game of the week at Little Falls last Friday, Dec. 9.  

As in the varsity contest, this was not a close contest as Little Falls doubled up the score on Old Forge. Dane Daiker was the leading scorer for the Town of Webb team and the only one in double figures. The other members of the team who scored were Cameron Lenci, Will Johnson and Andrew Slegaitis.

The team will open this years home basketball schedule with a game at 6 p.m. against Oriskany on Wednesday, Dec. 14.

Girls modified volleyball

The girls’ modified volleyball team played a home game against Remsen this past Tuesday, Dec. 6, in the Town of Webb School Gymnasium.  

Both teams played well with some excellent plays and serves with the highlight being with the A team winning all three games played. Some fine defensive plays were made by Mara Gaffney, Chloe Barkauskas and Melissa Rockhill. The serving was led by Allie Cooper, Chelby Simpson and Sydney Payne.  

The two teams will be playing a home match against Westmoreland today, Dec. 13.  The first team will begin play at 5:30 p.m.  

Girls varsity volleyball

The girls’ varsity volleyball team had a busy week of action this past week and have shown steady improvement.  

Monday, Dec. 5, the team played at Westmoreland and lost in five games. On the varsity level, the teams play the best three of five matches and anytime it goes to five matches, you know that it was closely contested. The scores were 17-25, 25-21, 25-15, 20-25 and 25-18. In reading the scores, always read the scores from the standpoint of the winning school.  

Alex Levi had one ace, three kills and two digs; Jessica Menges had seven aces and 11 kills and Daria Orekhov had two aces, 17 assists and one dig.  

In the junior varsity game, Westmoreland won 2 games to 1.  

The match scheduled with Sauquoit for Wednesday, Dec. 7, was postponed to a later date, so, the next game was a home match against Adirondack on Friday, Dec. 9. This also went five games before Adirondack pulled out the victory, 25-9, 21-25, 25-10, 24-26 and 26-24. When Adirondack won, they won big until the fifth and deciding game. It was the equivalent of an overtime game in basketball. Coach Jessica Brownsell had to be proud of the way her team played.  

Menges had three aces, one block, 11 kills and three digs; Orekhov had four aces, two kills 12 assists and three digs; Sarah Branch had two aces, one kill, one assist and four gigs and Mallory Kleps had one ace, one assist and one dig.  

In the junior varsity game, Adirondack won 2 games to 0.

After a long hard battle with Adirondack, the varsity team had to leave early the next morning to take part in another Saturday invitational, this time at South Lewis. There were a total of 12 schools that competed that day and they were divided into two pools.  

In Old Forge’s pool, they opened up against Morrisville-Eaton and split their games 25-20 and 19-25. Next was Holland Patent and once again, they split 26-24 and 20-25.  They defeated Oppenheim 25-21 and 25-23, but, lost to South Lewis, 25-18 and 28-26.  

Placing fourth in their pool, they moved to the semi-finals and had to play Whitesboro, a Class A school. They never backed down to them in losing 25-14 and 25-22. Had they pulled off some of their close losses, they probably would have made it to the final round. As it turned out, they placed seventh out of the 12 schools competing that day—not a bad days work for the team.  

As she did in the Dolgeville tournament, Jessica Menges was chosen to the tournament all-star team.