High school volleyball roundup: Seacrest, Barron, Riverdale all punch tickets to Final Four

A roundup of three high school volleyball games played on Saturday, Nov. 6:

Class 2A-Region 2

Seacrest Country Day 3, Bradenton Christian 0

Entering the season, many overlooked the Stingrays as being a team that could compete in Class 2A.

After losing key players Aisha Keric (Gulf Coast) and Keira Kruk (Barron Collier) to transfer, coach Jan Class said that was essentially used as bulletin board material for his young team.

In Saturday's regional final, that determined and gritty Seacrest squad put away a feisty Bradenton Christian team in straight sets, winning 25-17, 25-20, 25-19 over the visiting Panthers.

“We lost two amazing players,” Class said of Kruk and Keric. “The girls committed to training since Day 1. I told them we’re going to do all the adjustments that we need to do to keep at our level again. We were the underdogs all season. The newspapers and media said we were going to be the last ones this year, and we used that as motivation. Since Day 1, all those girls have been committed.

“We don’t go to the beach, or family time. The girls put the team and the school first, and I believe that’s why we have success.”

Bradenton Christian (19-5) looked sluggish in the middle of the first set, but made the Stingrays work especially in the second and third sets. Emma Laade picked apart Seacrest in the second set, giving the Panthers momentum.

“I think we all expected that fight,” Panthers coach Jon Sherfy said. “We’re a tough team. We didn’t quite accomplish our game plan and serve-receive struggled. We knew what they were bringing, and we trained for it for the past week, so we were up for the challenge. We’re excited about the fight we put up.”

Alexa Haley and the Stingrays wouldn’t let the visitors pick up a set. Haley kept countless balls off the ground, helping sustain rallies. The freshman finished with 25 digs in the match and even collided with the scorer’s table to keep one ball in play.

“Lexi Haley is the best libero right now in all high schools,” Class said. “She’s outstanding, very fast and very smart. She follows the game plan all the time, and she knows what she needs to do. She was following their best player (Laade) on the team.

“I can tell you the best thing we did today was playing hard defense. Like I always encourage the players, defense wins games, and we did very good today.”

Seacrest (24-4) dealt with a lot of mis-hits early on, but Breanah Rives and company overcame it in the end. Rives tallied 21 kills, bringing her total to 444 this season.

“It’s very exciting,” Rives said. “We’ve worked really hard to come back to where we are. We’ve always come to practice knowing how long and hard we’re going to have to work for the outcome that we came to (today). We just came with a family on the court, and whatever happened, happened. We fought for every point and pushed every ball.”

Sophia Caruso had a solid day at the setter position, posting 24 assists. Carole Ann Hussey and Brooke Spurgeon had nine and eight kills, respectively.

For Sherfy and his team, he views the future as very bright, describing the next few years at Bradenton Christian as something to look forward to, thanks in part to Laade, Jenna Streiff, and Niecey Johnson.

“I’ve got three freshmen starting on this varsity team, I’ve got three on the bench, and my whole JV team is freshman and eighth-graders,” Sherfy said. “Any of those girls can step up and come up to varsity. They’re that good. That’s exciting. I’m excited for the next six to seven years. We’re ready to go, we’re ready to take on everybody, knowing we’re going to be good next year, the year after that, and the year after that.

"It all starts with what my graduating class has set up and set an example for those young kids. It’s a revolving circle, it always starts somewhere, and it started with them next year.”

The Stingrays will host at home next Saturday, with a state championship berth on the line against Gainesville Oak Hall (21-8) at 2 p.m.

— Alex Martin

Class 5A-Region 3

Barron Collier 3, Osceola 0

With high energy, terrific serving and clutch stretches of momentum, the Cougars advanced to the state Final Four for the fifth time in six years.

Each set featured back-and-forth swings, but it was the Cougars who were able to consistently buckle down in the big moments to dash the hopes of the Warriors (25-19, 25-22, 25-21), keeping the young Barron Collier team’s season alive on Saturday afternoon.

Students stormed the court, and Barron Collier head coach Yamil Del Valle leapt with joy when the Cougars converted match point.

“It feels awesome,” Del Valle said. “They’ve been really working hard every single day. We don’t stop..”

Serving was a difference-maker in the contest as missed served stymied the Warriors’ momentum while the Cougars got free points to stretch leads.

Keira Kruk and Charlotte Mongin had four aces each, while Ava Zehnder hit three. Kruk also posted eight kills and 14 digs.

“We are all so excited," Kruk said. "Our coach was very excited after the game, and it was very emotional, but it was a very exciting win. We’re very happy to be moving on.”

Zehnder notched 11 digs and 19 assists for the Cougars, while libero Bella Velazquez recorded a team-high 22 digs.

The team graduated seven seniors from last season, including All-American Skylar English, who is spending her time on court these days with FGCU.

“It was a big hit for us,” Del Valle said. “We have a pretty young team and we’re trying to put it together, and here is the result. I think they’re doing a great job. The communication and the chemistry inside the team is amazing.”

That was evident on the court on Saturday. Following an early stretch of seven points won by the Warriors, which prompted Del Valle to take a timeout, the Cougars stepped up and prevented Osceola from scoring more than three consecutive points the rest of the match.

Thanks to that dominant performance, Barron Collier is back in familiar territory. After falling to Port Charlotte in the regional semifinals last year, the Cougars missed the state semifinals for the first time since 2015.

That might not mean much given the squad’s youth, but Del Valle is confident his team is one of the hungriest out there.

As the No. 3 seed in the Final Four, the Cougars, now 22-8, will go on the road to face 2nd-seeded Merritt Island (23-6) on Saturday, Nov. 13 at 2 p.m.

“They want it so bad, and they want to show the people that they can do it,” Del Valle said.

— Dustin Levy

Class 6A-Region 2

Riverdale 3, Mitchell 1

The Raiders continued their status of being road warriors Saturday afternoon.

Roni Hipp's team went to New Port Richey to take on a team that was 23-0 entering the match, and came away with an impressive 22-25, 25-17, 25-11, 25-23 victory.

“We really had to work today,” Hipp said. “Mitchell was a really good team, much taller than we had faced. They were pretty scrappy on defense, so we were tested and our offense was tested. At times, we were having difficulty putting the ball away, but I think the thing that I can always count on out of this team is that they’re never going to let up.

“They never think they’re going to lose. Between Logyn (Geren) and Brayden (Hipp), they just keep fighting. Kendyl (Bryson) is in there, and Landyn (Higginbotham), our libero, played really good defense. Everything wasn’t working for us, but they just keep working and making adjustments we had to make.”

Tulsa commit Brayden Hipp finished with 38 assists and 20 digs, alongside Bryson, who had 13 digs.

"I believe we were the more athletic team and really focused on our side of the net today," Brayden Hipp said. "We knew we were the undersized team and excelled in our aspects of the game to overcome that."

The Raiders' kills leader, Geren, added 24 kills and 12 digs, bringing her total to 435 in 2021.

"It means everything to us," Geren said. "We have been talking about making it far in the playoffs before the season even started."

Roni Hipp's team got out to fast starts in the second and third sets, and dominated throughout both of them. Hipp attributed that success to the serving.

"I thought that we served much tougher and got them out of system," Roni Hipp said, "which then allowed us to be more in system on our side. I thought our serving was the key, and we were doing a better job of putting balls away. Our serving keeping them out of system was key in those two sets."

Riverdale will travel to Hialeah to take on Mater Academy Charter, a team that swept St. Thomas Aquinas in three competitive sets, next Saturday. If it weren't for Viera upsetting New Smyrna Beach, the Raiders would be looking at a bus ride up to Ponte Vedra, the No. 2 team in the nation and No. 1 team in the state.

— The News-Press staff

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Volleyball: How Seacrest, Riverdale, Barron Collier did in regional finals