Westminster Christian’s Sylvia Hernandez is Miami-Dade Beach Volleyball Coach of Year

It wasn’t all that long ago that Sylvia Hernandez was in the shoes of the players in front of her.

Just a decade ago, Hernandez was a volleyball standout at Westmisnter Christian, a two-time Miami Herald Girls’ Volleyball Player of the Year and the Herald’s Overall Girls’ Athlete of the Year for Miami-Dade her senior year before playing indoor volleyball at the University of Miami and then beach volleyball at Loyola Marymount.

She returned to her old stomping grounds as Westminster Christian’s beach volleyball coach and found instant success leading one of the state’s most talent-rich teams to be named the Miami Herald’s inaugural Miami-Dade Beach Volleyball Coach of the Year.

The Warriors from top to bottom were one of the top teams in the state. After all, they won a state title last season in Tavares when the sport was still played on the club level and returned the majority of its roster from that title run.

They swept their first eight matches, then narrowly beat Vero Beach 3-2 and St. Thomas Aquinas 4-1 to cap a perfect regular season. Three more sweeps — 5-0 victories against LaSalle and Lourdes in the district tournament and then another 5-0 win against Doral in the regional play-in game — advanced them to the state tournament, which took place on Florida State University’s campus in Tallahassee.

Westminster Christian then beat St. Thomas Aquinas again, this time by a 3-1 score, before falling to Vero Beach 3-2 in the state quarterfinals.

“It didn’t end how we wanted to but we had a good run and a good season,” Hernandez said after the loss. “There’s not much to say. Vero Beach is a very good team and they made the plays needed to win.”