Jensen Beach captures fifth state volleyball championship with sweep of Barron Collier

WINTER HAVEN — From the start, the Barron Collier volleyball team probably knew it was going to need a bit of magic against a superior Jensen Beach squad on Saturday afternoon.

And quickly thereafter, reality started to set in. Defending the trio of Lindsay Walch, Lauren Duke, and Haley Handlen was going to be a challenge.

The Falcons (29-3) captured the fifth state championship in program history, defeating the Cougars 25-17, 25-15, 25-22 at Winter Haven Health Center. Barron Collier (19-6) is 0-2 in state championship games.

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“What can I say. Nothing worked for us,” Barron Collier coach Yamil Del Valle said. “We tried to do our best to keep everybody on track. We tried to keep them as much out of their system as we can. We were not able to use our middles as much as we’d love to use them. It’s an important part of our game, and not being able to use that and keep the game alive, it was getting tougher.

“… With that being said, just having my outsides, one with four (points), the other one with only one point, we had Kendra (Pruitt) with 16 (kills). One of the middles with three, the other to not even make a point, that’s the difference in the game. We cannot compete like that.”

Ava Zehnder started the first set with a pair of aces before the Falcons went on a 6-0 run to force an early timeout from Del Valle. Walch had a lot to do with that, finishing the first set with seven kills before going on to finish with a game-high 17.

“I thought we picked a great day to have a great day,” Jensen Beach coach Mike Sawtelle said. “We played the game about as good as could have. We stuck with the game plan. Barron Collier’s a great team. A very good team. They have hitters everywhere. Our plan was to not allow them to set up their big hitters, their big guns. It worked to perfection. We worked it with serve. We tried to serve away from their strengths. Our serving game was on today. It was a good game for us on serve.”

Jensen Beach didn’t have much time going into the week to practice, as Hurricane Nicole rolled through the Treasure Coast and left the community with damage. That put the Falcons in a different position coming into a normal state championship game

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“The hurricane went right down our street, right down Jensen Beach,” Sawtelle said. “Sidebar, at 2 o’clock in the morning, I was up, and we were sitting in the eye of the hurricane. School was out Wednesday and Thursday. Friday, we had no school because it was Veterans Day. We completely lost a day on Wednesday. We had a quick practice on Thursday, a one-hour practice on Friday, and that was it. Our schedule was completely chaotic since Tuesday night really.

“I would’ve been (surprised), but yesterday we had a one-hour scrimmage, and I thought we were right on yesterday. We had a great practice. We did everything we needed to do. The girls felt comfortable, felt relaxed. Today, they were relaxed and focused on what we had to do. And you can’t ask for anything more as a coach. I was a little surprised we were so in sync today.”

Preparing for a bigger opponent posed problems for Barron Collier. Jensen Beach finished with 13 solo blocks, seven of which came from Kiosha Smith up front. Del Valle said changing things last minute would’ve been detrimental to the team, given it had gotten them to where they were Saturday.

“I tried to not switch things too much,” Del Valle said of his game plan. “I tried to be consistent with what we were doing. My team is pretty mental. If we switch too much, it’s gonna completely switch the dynamic. We’ve been doing pretty good on block, on timing… They did a pretty good job. Their setter moved the ball around the way that we know she was going to, and we were focusing on her. Sometimes that was not there. We tried everything. We tried to be there for the block, we tried to block Lindsay as much as we can.”

Aside from Pruitt’s 16 kills, the next highest leader in that category was Keira Kruk, who finished with four kills on 18 attempts. She also added 14 digs, while Pruitt had seven digs. Scarlett Martz had three kills for Barron.

For Jensen Beach, Duke totaled 10 kills, while Handlen had seven kills. Raegan Richardson had arguably her best game of the season according to Sawtelle, finishing with 31 assists. Sophia Gannascoli led the way with nine digs for Jensen Beach.

Barron Collier junior setter Ava Zehnder instantly gave the Cougars a spark upon returning in early October. Zehnder may have missed more than half of the season, but she ended up as the team’s assists leader after having a fracture in her hand that sidelined her for six weeks. Her return was huge for the team, as many had written off the Cougars as state title contenders midway through the season.

“I think everyone underestimated us this year,” Zehnder said. “I don’t think people thought we’d make it this far. We proved them wrong, and we made it to the state championship.”

Follow Southwest Florida Sports Writer Alex Martin on Twitter: @NP_AlexMartin. For the best sports coverage in Southwest Florida, follow @newspresssports and @ndnprepzone on Instagram.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Barron Collier volleyball falls to Jensen Beach in Class 5A championship