On Tuesday, Oct. 28, the varsity girls volleyball team traveled to Ocala to face West Port High school in a regional quarterfinal, the first game of the state playoffs.
Coming off of a 3-1 loss to University Orange City in the district championship, the team was hungry for victory.
“We really wanted to win this game because we really want to meet up with University again,” sophomore Ashley Howard said.
The girls dominated West Port High School in three games: 25-14, 25-13, 25-14. Senior Nicole Mattson lead the team with 22 kills and five digs while senior Shelby Sutch added 13 digs. This win improved the girls record to 15-6 overall, the program’s second best record in school history.
The girls will face University Orange City, who advanced after beating Mandarin High School in three games, again on Tuesday, Nov. 4 for a rematch of the district championship game. The girls expect a different outcome this time.
“We all have a lot of anger because we lost to them, but I think we’ll win because we’re so mad,” junior Kassandra Mentlick said. “We definitely plan on using the anger from that loss to our advantage.”
The girls have already begun doing just that. As the team moves forward in practice, they only have one thing in mind: find every way to beat University.
“Now that we know where they hit and what their strategy is, we’re using that to our advantage,” Howard said. “They’re on our mind when we’re practicing and running drills.”