Volleyball defeats Boone 3-1, advances to Sweet 16
photo by Ryan Schmitt
The team celebrates after a big bock late in the fourth game to capture the win, 3-1 over Boone.
After a successful first set and a hiccup in the second, the defending state champion girls volleyball team defeated Boone 3-1 at home on Oct. 21. This propelled them to the Sweet 16 regional semi-final matchup against Winter Park, who they defeated 3-1 during the regular season.
Outside Brooke Stephens, libero Alondra Garcia and freshman back row Mayte Camacho led the team with 15, 15 and 14 digs respectively.
“[They know] they have someone to trust in the back row in me to get the ball to the setter,” Camacho said.
Camacho played on junior varsity last year, but was called up to varsity as the season progressed.
Along with Camacho’s 14 digs, setter Kyla Mullen had 17 assists and 12 kills from Stephens.
The game started well with a confident 25-18 victory, but the team veered away from the game plan as Boone’s outside hitters picked up the pace in the second game.
Head coach Juanita Hitt reminded her hitters to swing down the line to zone one towards the opposing setter. They utilized this to take their setter out of the play, to decrease the odds of a good set to their outside hitters.
“Their hitter gave us a little struggle at the net so we moved our outside Alina Carrillo in the front row with her to match them up,” Hitt said. “That changed a lot of the tempo because she wasn’t getting as many kills, and was getting blocked at the net.”
The competition will only get tougher, and head coach Juanitta Hitt knows sloppy play will not win games. Despite the win, she thinks that the team has a lot of work to do in preparation for the game against Winter Park.
“I think we did well on terminating the plays I ran but we struggled a little in serve receive which cost us a few points,” Mullen said.
The team will face Winter Park on Oct. 28 at Winter Park. Tickets will be sold for $6 through GoFan.
“The good [thing] is we played terrible and we still won,” Hitt said. “The bad is that we cannot do that again because when we face better teams down the road, we are not going to be successful.”
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