'It's new and exciting': Aucilla Christian volleyball wins program's first regional game

Volleyball has been a varsity sport at Aucilla Christian for only seven years.

Most seasons have gone the same. The Warriors have a stellar regular season, make a deep run in the district tournament, and eventually saw their season come to a close in the regional tournament against a private school from Jacksonville. It was almost rinse and repeat, but a move down from 2A to 1A has given the program new life.

Considering its public school counterpart, Jefferson County, had been competing in 1A for years, the door was open for Aucilla Christian athletics to walk through. In taking that chance, its volleyball program has taken over the classification and given the team a new reality.

Fresh off a district championship sweep over Hilliard last week, the Warriors only hit repeat in their regional semifinal matchup, sweeping the Flashes, 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-13) to win the program's first regional tournament game and punch its ticket to the 1A-Region 3 title game on Tuesday.

"This is amazing," Warriors head coach James Burkett said. "First playoff win in school history and these girls are playing good. We're just hoping we can continue it and keep moving forward."

At the epicenter of the effort, senior middle hitter Lena Kimmell has put up state-leading numbers on defense and offense. Her nine blocks Thursday night upped her season total to 165, which now leads the entire state of Florida. She balanced that out with a dominant offensive presence on the front line, recording a team-leading 14 kills.

Kimmell emerged as a scoring threat last season but has taken her game to a new level this fall. The change? Kimmell said that she emphasized CrossFit in her regular training this summer.

"I usually play basketball and softball in the offseason, but this offseason I focused on CrossFit," Kimmell said. "I've worked out, got my vertical up, and worked on my strength and athleticism. My team behind me has also gotten a lot better from last season. We've got a lot of chemistry and that helps a lot in getting the ball to where it needs to be."

Kimmell's blocking efforts have been a part of why Burkett believes that his team's defense is beginning to rise late in the season. Since losing to Wakulla in four sets earlier this month, Aucilla has gone 6-0, picking up sweeps in all of those victories.

While Kimmell has been shut down on the front line, senior libero Madison Rudd has been a savior in the backcourt. She recorded 36 digs in Thursday night's victory, adding to her overall total of 663 on the year, which is good enough for third overall in the state.

"We're starting to work together as a team and trust each other," Burkett said. "Defense is important to win games."

Aucilla Christian has seen a lot of success on the girls' basketball court, winning the regional title back in 2019 and 2018, and has a chance to correlate that success to volleyball. The regional title match will be at home on Tuesday, November 1st, but the opponent is to be determined.

The Warriors await the winner of Branford/Union County, who faced off in their district title game last week as well.

Staying and playing together continues to be the key for this Aucilla team to keep the dream alive, but there's also a sense of belief that's important. The Warriors are believing in what they can do on the court and it's a shared feeling that mindset will get them far.

"In practice, we work hard in getting these loose balls and making sure that we're on our toes and keeping a full effort," Kimmell said. "We keep the mindset that we're not defeated. We've gone into games where we've had a defeated mindset because we were going up against a good team. We should've beat some of those teams, but our mindset was not in the right place."

"We just need to get focused, keep our mindset right and work hard."

Jack Williams covers prep sports for Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at jwilliams@tallahassee.com or on Twitter @jackgwilliams. 

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Aucilla Christian volleyball wins program's first regional game