Jamesville-DeWitt’s girls volleyball team strode into the Section III Class A playoffs with a single goal – namely, get to the championship match on its home court the night of Feb. 19 and prevail. At least the no. 6 seed Red Rams took care of the first part, knocking out no. 11 seed East Syracuse-Minoa in Wednesday night’s opening round in four games. A close first game saw the Spartans hang close, but J-D still prevail 25-22. The second game proved a bit more lopsided as the Rams won, 25-19, to take a 2-0 edge. ESM would prolong the match by winning the third game 25-21, but in the fourth game J-D’s all-around talents led to a 25-18 decision that ended the battle. Michelle Dallalah led J-D with 17 assists, four digs and three kills, while Ally Loewy worked up front for 14 kills, adding five aces and nine digs. Jenna Hayward had 13 kills. As the support, Jess Butler had five blocks and Taylor Bierwagen four kills and two blocks. Emily Parker produced 18 digs, while Sonia Narfipur added seven assists. Diane Casinella had eight digs, with Taryn Dausman and Lexi Lerman each contributing seven digs and Frannie Haunfeiner finishing with four kills. ESM, in defeat, featured Charlotte Visser picking up 10 kills, with Danielle Steigerwald (10 digs, four kills), Laura Adams (four kills, nine digs) and Olivia Chopskie (five kills) in front-line support. Kaitlyn Shaughnessy finished with 31 assists as Kristina Spero contributed 11 digs. As a warm-up for this match, J-D took one of one more regular-season opponent last Monday night, sweeping Chittenango 25-21, 25-20, 25-15. Gradually, the Rams put away the Bears as Parker saved points with her 19 digs and Katie Greene posted 12 digs. Loewy augmented her four kills with six digs as Lena Winterman earned four assists. J-D will meet no. 3 seed Oneida in this weekend’s Class A quarterfinals, with the winner to get Fulton or Watertown in the semifinals early next week.