Eastport-South Manor digs deep but falls to Jamesville-DeWitt
Eastport-South Manor's Jack Cain, center, celebrates a point during the NYSPHSAA Boys Volleyball Championships Division 2 final against Jamesville-Dewitt, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, in Rochester, N.Y. Credit: Adrian Kraus
ROCHESTER — After going unbeaten since 2023, the Eastport-South Manor boys volleyball team’s reign has come to an end.
The Sharks fell in five sets, 25-16, 23-25, 26-24, 23-25, 10-15, to Section III’s Jamesville-DeWitt in the Division II state finals on Sunday at Roberts Wesleyan University. Eastport-South Manor finished its season 18-1.
Coach Bill Kropp said he knew from the beginning that Jamesville-DeWitt would be his team’s biggest challenge, but that his athletes left everything they had on the court.
“They played their hearts out,” Kropp said. “As a coach, I can’t ask for more than them to play as hard as they did. These kids have always been overachievers. They work so hard and they come together as one to compete. They did that today, it just didn’t fall our way.”
Jack Cain led Eastport-South Manor with 26 kills, 17 digs and an ace in the championship match. Andrew Dragos and James Talamini added 17 and 16 kills, respectively. Kropp said his team was truly evenly matched with its opponent.
“You can see from the score that we were right there,” Kropp said. “Maybe on a different day — and one less mis-hit, one less silly mistake — the result would have been the other way around.”
Earlier in the day, Eastport-South Manor defeated Burned Hills-Ballston Lake (Section II), 25-21, 25-20, 25-12, in the semifinals. Libero Tyler Bottcher totaled 40 digs on the day including 22 in the championship.
Bottcher said it’s heartbreaking for the season to end with a tough loss, but that there’s no other group he would rather experience it with.
“This team is really special,” Bottcher said. “I love all my teammates, they’re my brothers for life. I couldn’t be more thankful for them.”
And like Kropp had said, Bottcher echoed that he and his teammates left their hearts on the court.
“It means everything to us to be here,” Bottcher said. “We fell short and it’s upsetting, but [Jamesville-DeWitt is] a great team and we gave it our all.
In Kropp’s final year with the Sharks, he said it has been an honor to lead the team to so much success, including state titles in 2021 and 2024.
“It’s why I do this,” Kropp said. “I do this to develop these kids into young men who know what it means to commit, who know what it means to work hard toward a common goal. They did that today. They committed, they worked hard and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Tess Ferguson is a reporter on Newsday's high school sports staff. She joined the team after graduating with a journalism degree from Ithaca College in 2025.
