byron

Byron-Bergen outside hitter Mary Cocking earned first team All-Greater Rochester honors, and it is well deserved.

Cocking had 345 kills this season to bring her career total to 1,061. She also had 315 digs to give her 788 in her career.

The three time Section 5 all-tournament all-star was a member of the three state title teams. She plans on attending Brockport to study nursing and play volleyball.

Again, the local small schools  had no second team selections, but here are the honorable mentions:

Genesee Region: Kayla Konieczy (Byron-Bergen), Krysta Lougheed (Byron-Bergen), Jessica George (Byron-Bergen), Mary McCormick (Byron-Bergen), Katie Boxler (Attica), Jackie Algier (Attica), Stephanie Maurer (Pembroke), Britt Morelli (Batavia Notre Dame), Liz Geandreau (Notre Dame), Courtney Turcer (Alexander), Sam Skyrp (Lyndonville), Megan Fahy (Lyndonville).

 Set your DVR or don't make plans for tomorrow night between 8 and 10 p.m.

Byron-Bergen grad Alyssa D'Errico and her Penn St. volleyball team will be playing in the national championship on ESPN2.

The Nittany Lions won the championship last year in D'Errico's freshman year. 

UPDATE: It looks like Penn St. will be playing Stanford, which just ended its match with Texas. It was a 20-25, 18-25, 25-15, 25-22, 15-13 comeback victory.

Byron-Bergen senior Mary Cocking ended her high school volleyball career with an All-state selection.

The outside hitter is a fourth-team selection in Class C and is the only local girl to receive all-state honors.

 Cocking is a four-time Genesee Region League all-star and ended her high school career with 1,061 kills, 788 digs and 309 aces. She was the MVP when the Bees won a sixth consecutive title in 2007 and was a member of the three state champion squads.

 Byron-Bergen grad Mike McInally won all four of his matches at the 2008 Oneonta Red Dragon Invitation this weekend and because of that was named the Empire Conference Wrestler of the Week.

The RIT junior beat Niagara Community College's Jared Lemke in the finals, 6-1, to capture the tournament title.

McInally is 5-0 now on the season and has a career record of 73-17.

His RIT wrestling squad will be hosting the RIT Invitational this weekend. A full day of wrestling starts at 9:30 a.m. at Clark Gym at RIT.

 Pete Loney's Daemen College basketball team is off to a hot start.

The Wildcats have won four of five games so far, and the Byron-Bergen graduate has played in all five games, starting one. He is having a great season so far from beyond the 3-point line. Loney has hit 13-of-21 attempts and is scoring 8.2 points per game.

He is fifth on the team in scoring while playing just over 15 minutes per game.

Loney's career-high of 16 points in a game came against Urbana College last season.

 Byron-Bergen graduate Gillian Taylor has competed in two cross country races this fall and should be primed for a big indoor track & field season at the University at Buffalo.

The sophomore ran a 21:40, for a 37th place finish, at the Tommy Evans Invite and took 63rd with a 22:06 at the UB Stampede Invite.

The Bulls scored 513 points and finished 17th at the 2008 NCAA Northeast Regional Championships at Van Cortlandt Park this past weekend, but Taylor did not compete in the race.

She was a member of UB's distance medley relay team during indoor last season, and finished 15th in the 800 m at the MAC Outdoor Championships last year.

Taylor was one of the most successful runners in area history at Byron-Bergen.

She received 14 varsity letters and was a team captain in cross country, indoor and outdoor track. She was named the teams' most valuable runner 12 times and holds the B-B records in the 1500 (4:50), 800 (2:20), 1000 (3:01) and was on the record holding 1600 relay squad.

She won 10 individual sectional titles and qualified for the state championships in outdoors five times, and indoors once.

I haven't been getting results from Elba/Byron-Bergen's football squad since the Pool Play started, but I did find a story on the semifinals win over Bolivar-Richburg on Saturday.

Elba/B-B did lose in the finals, but had a successful run, winning three games in a row before this.

(Updated to fix my mistake)

Byron-Bergen product Alyssa D'Errico and her Penn St. volleyball squad just keep on winning.

The Nittany Lions have won 52 consecutive matches and are the defending national champions.

D'Errico is featured in a preview of the Ohio St. match, which was won by her squad. While a senior at Byron-Bergen, she received a phone call from coach Russ Rose after the last loss by Penn St. in the Big 10.

"It's kind of devastating to hear because you know the tradition to be the top team in Big Ten and play like you expect to win and play to win," D'Errico said of the phone conversation with Rose back in 2006. "It's kind of a mindset we have that we have to keep the tradition alive of not losing to [Big Ten] teams."

The Nittany Lions have a tough weekend coming up, playing games at No. 17 Illinois and No. 18 Purdue.

Richard Laub, Buffalo Museum of Science curator of geology, is the featured dinner speaker tonight at the  Eastern States Archaeological Federation’s annual meeting. He will speak on the Hiscock Site, an archeological dig in Byron. The federation is meeting at the Holiday Inn Lockport, 515 S. Transit Road.

The site was accidentally discovered in 1959, but was not actively excavated until the 1980s. The site has yield mastodon fragments and paleo-Indian artifacts.

The full program of the federations meeting can be downloaded as a PDF here.

 Barker (1-6) at Alexander (4-4)

2:30 p.m. Saturday

The Trojans are looking to end the year on a positive note. They lost to Canisteo-Greenwood in the opening round of the playoffs before beating Red Jacket 31-20 last weekend. Jay Schafer leads the squad with 779 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground. The Raiders are led by Greg Brown.

Bolivar-Richburg (3-5) at Elba/Byron-Bergen (3-4)

1:30 p.m. Saturday

The Lancers won for the second consecutive week, beating Warsaw 19-12 in a Pool Play game. Zach Green has been putting up big numbers all year and they've gotten insane in recent weeks. He ran for 205 yards with three touchdowns last week.

The Elba/Byron-Bergen football won for the second consecutive time, downing Warsaw in a Pool Play game, 19-12.

The Lancers were down 12-0 midway through the third quarter but stormed back with two third quarter scores and another in the fourth.

Zack Green had another monster game with 26 carries for 205 yards and three TDS and Cody Torpey completed 2-of-2 pass attempts for 34 yards. He also made 10 tackles.

Brent Crawford had 14.

Warsaw falls to 0-8 while Elba/Byron-Bergen improves to 3-5.

 Holley (0-7) at Bolivar-Richburg (2-5)

1:30 p.m. Saturday

Guy Hills and his Holley football team are looking to get their first win of the season. It has been a long, difficult struggle but Pool Play is for building for the following year and that's exactly what coach Chad DeRock is looking to do.

Warsaw (0-7) at Elba/Byron-Bergen (2-4)

1:30 p.m. Saturday

The Lancers won a much needed game last week, dropping Section 6's Bishop Walsh 34-16. Zach Green continued to impress, gaining 255 yards with two touchdowns in the game. Elba/B-B is looking to build on that victory and get the returning players from Elba and Byron-Bergen confidence heading into the offseason.

Barker (1-6) at C.G. Finney (4-2)

1:30 p.m. Saturday

Barker nearly shocked top-seeded Clyde Savannah in Class DD last week, showing how good the Genesee Region League is, losing 7-6. Greg Brown and his teammates can be proud of that effort, but will be tested against Finney, which was upset by Perry last week in Class D.

Red Jacket (1-6) at Alexander (3-4)

1:30 p.m. Saturday

The junior-filled Trojans were thrilled after a 3-3 regular season and then disappointed after penalties killed them in a 28-14 loss to Canisteo-Greenwood last week in the opening round of the playoffs. The juniors just want to keep playing and getting better.

 Elba/Byron-Bergen (1-5) at Bishop Walsh (1-4).

7 p.m. Friday

Some games are close to a must-win, even if a team isn't going to make the playoffs.

This is one of them.

Elba/Byron-Bergen has that situation this weekend as Walsh is not a very good football team that could be the home underdog. The Eagles have only scored 66 points in five games, while giving up a whopping 187.

The Section 6 school is coming off a 43-12 beat-down at the hands of C.G. Finney last week and has only beaten Niagara Catholic this season in a 26-22 game. 

The Lancers need a win in this game to quiet some of the many critics that are not happy with the way the program is going.

Last week's 48-14 loss to Notre Dame was rough to look at on the field, but the reason isn't because of the skill of the players. The Elba/Byron-Bergen penalty count - including personal fouls - is out of control and the fans have grown impatient with the losing and penalties; and they are becoming very vocal.

When the team doesn't turn the ball over or shoot itself in the foot with the penalties, they are competitive.

Zach Green is one of the more talented athletes in the Genesee Region League and people will remember him as the biggest bright spot for this team, this year.

He gained the majority of Elba/Byron-Bergen's 129 rushing yards last week and can break off a big run at any time. Brandon Spurling also has that breakaway ability and will get his share of carries.

The Lancers had been starting Eric Kowalik at quarterback for most of the season, but switched back to Cody Torpey last week. It is unclear at this point as to which one will get the start or the bulk of the plays behind center this week.

The Byron-Bergen players have improved throughout the season and have now gained enough varsity experience to play with a team like Walsh. 

The Lancers are looking to win this game and try to turn some of the negative talk into positives heading into Pool Play.