Winter Haven volleyball wins district championship, beats Strawberry Crest 3-0
There was too much energy at Winter Haven High School on Thursday night for the volleyball program to go down in the Class 7A, District 10 championship game.
Combine that with the fact that the Blue Devils were playing too well to lose, and in the end, Winter Haven won a district title in straight sets, 25-12, 25-22, 25-15 over Strawberry Crest. This is the second district title in Dylan Sechrest's four years as head coach.
Sophomore outside-hitter Rylee Tanner racked up 29 kills, and three digs. And freshman middle-blocker Emily Drier put up nine kills and three assists.
“It means a lot. It’s just all about consistency — we want to be consistent every single year,” Sechrest said. “We really pride ourselves in being Polk County’s premiere volleyball program, (and) with that you got to win.”
With Winter Haven already up 1-0, Strawberry Crest came out with a sense of urgency in the second set with a 5-0 run.
But like all year, the Blue Devils navigated themselves back in the game. Senior middle-blocker Paige Prather hovered the net and executed a block to make the score 20-19 Strawberry Crest.
The set eventually was tied at 20, and it was a back and forth between both teams. Tanner spiked the ball to tie the game at 21. And Drier was eventually set up and she fooled Strawberry Crest, tapping the ball for a roll shot and a score to give Winter Haven its first lead at 23-22.
"You have to remember to stay calm because the game isn't over until you hit 25 points...," Drier said.
Tanner said there was a pattern that her team needs to avoid.
“We have a bad habit of letting up a little bit," Tanner said. "Me personally, I realized that I needed to take control and just make a play so we can lessen the run — and just go play-by-play.”
A couple plays later, junior outside-hitter Elle Floyd made a nice lunging play for a save to eventually cap the second set’s score, 25-22.
It took an adjustment by Sechrest to rally from behind, though. Due to Strawberry Crest swinging angle a lot and noticing that Winter Haven's middle back was going angle, Sechrest moved the middle backs back to the middle of the court to prevent any other roll shots from the Chargers.
"Little bit by little I trusted the kids,” Sechrest said. "Rylee did some good things to bring us back. Tori Martin distributing the ball. Once we tighten up our serve-receive, we kind of got back into it there.”
In the third set, it was the Tanner show, as the all-county player spiked for a score to make it 5-2 Winter Haven. In the end, Martin set up Prather for a shot to win it 25-15.
Winter Haven (17-8), the No. 19 team in Class 7A, will know the next opponent when the state releases the updated schedule.
4A-8: McKeel 3, DeSoto 1
McKeel bounced back after dropping the third set to win in four, beating Arcadia DeSoto, 25-13, 3-31, 21-25, 25-22, in the championship match.
The victory gave McKeel (20-3) back-to-back district titles.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: high school volleyball
