Southwest, South Broward, Archbishop McCarthy boys’ volleyball teams headed to state
With the painful memory of a close state semifinal loss a year ago, possibly robbing them of a state title they thought they might get, the Southwest boys’ volleyball team moved one step closer to righting that wrong on Friday night.
The host Eagles rolled to an easy straight set 25-18, 25-12, 25-10 victory over the Hialeah-Miami Lakes Trojans in a regional final to punch their ticket to a second straight state tournament.
Southwest, which has won two state titles, the last coming in 2008, will take on Boca Raton Spanish River in a state quarterfinal on May 10 at 8:30 p.m. at Boca Raton High School.
“A good job by the kids tonight of just going out there and taking care of business,” said SW coach Alain Suarez, whose team improved to 21-3. “We knew what we wanted at the start of the season was to get back to state and have a shot to redeem ourselves from where we left off last year (loss to Celebration) and getting past tonight’s match against Lakes was another step towards that goal.”
Lakes (15-5) hung close in the first set and trailed by just two (17-15) before the Eagles went on an 8-3 run to close out the set and were never challenged from there.
Southwest was led by Jack Hershman (13 kills, 4 aces), Miguel Espinosa (8 kills), Daniel Pupiro (9 kills 4 digs) and Julian Carbajal (30 assists).
“We haven’t forgotten how bad we felt last year when we lost,” said Espinosa, committed to King University in Tennessee. “We felt were good enough to bring a state championship home then and feel like we can do it now. We’ve worked hard to stay focused on that goal all year long.”
MORE VOLLEYBALL
▪ Regional Final — South Broward d. Krop 3-1 (15-25, 25-17, 25-10, 25-15): After spotting host Krop the first set, South Broward took control of the game from there as the Bulldogs won the next three sets to advance to the state tournament for the third consecutive year.
South Broward, which will take on Lake Worth Park Vista in a state quarterfinal on May 10 at 7 p.m. at Boca Raton High School, was led by Grayson Stoudt (.455 hitting efficiency) and Jonathan Hurst (.857) as the Bulldogs improved to 18-9.
“It’s great to be going back for a third straight time but we’ve gone out in the quarterfinals the last two years,” said South Broward coach Leo Jiminez. “We have a lot of returners so the goal this time is to at least advance to the final four on Saturday.”
▪ Regional Final — Archbishop McCarthy d. Cardinal Gibbons 3-1 (25-23, 25-13, 23-25, 25-20): Led by junior Omar Hoyos, Archbishop McCarthy put themselves in position to earn a state title for the first time since 2016 after a victory over defending state champion Cardinal Gibbons on Friday.
The Mavericks (22-6) advance to the state tournament on May 10 at Boca Raton High where the will play 2018 state runner up Celebration in a state quarterfinal match at 5:30.
It will be McCarthy’s fourth appearance to the state tournament in school history.
Hoyos finished with a team high 14 kills and 18 digs.
“It was a great game overall for the team,” Hoyos said. “Going up two sets was hard and with all the energy we had in the third set we put into the final to win.”
The deciding fourth set was powered by Hoyos and sophomore Jakob Santos. Hoyos gave the Mavericks a 15-14 lead on yet another kill. It would a lead the McCarthy wouldn’t relinquish.
Santos added three kills down the stretch to clinch the victory. He finished with 13 kills on the night.
“We definitely love it when Omar does well for us,” said Archbishop McCarthy coach Corey Marks. “We preach the kids to do their job and they did.
“We knew Gibbons was going to tough because they were the defending state champs. We knew it’s never easy against Gibbons, but now we’re off to the state tournament.
The set back for the Chiefs (20-8) gave them their first eight loss season in school history.
“We fought from behind most of the match,” said Cardinal Gibbons coach Mike Zarate. “It was tough with all the young kids we have.
Michael Valenzi, a 6-2 junior, who has been the Gibbons team leader in kills, blocks and digs kept his team within striking distance through the match.
He finished with a game-high 24 kills, the majority coming in the third and fourth sets.
Gibbons, down 2-0, rallied in the third set as Valenzi had nine kills. However, the Chiefs couldn’t sustain the momentum.
Calin Weaver added nine kills and Wyatt Flack added 30 assists for the Chiefs.
-DAVE BROUSSEAU
GIRLS’ WATER POLO
▪ Regional Final — South Broward 24, Fort Lauderdale 6: The Bulldogs, a state semifinal loser a year ago, are headed back to state for the second year in a row following the easy win over the Flying L’s.
South Broward, which will take on Winter Park in a state semifinal on May 10 at 4 p.m. at Boca Raton High School, was led by senior captain and St. Francis College (Brooklyn, N.Y.) commit Emma Leto. Leto finished with 9 goals, 4 assists and 3 steals while younger sister Mia Leto had 8 goals with 5 assists and 5 steals.
Sydney Devroedt (7 goals, 7 steals) and Tyler Bell (5 assists, 3 steals) also contributed offensively while goalkeeper Karina Umana had 11 saves.
BASEBALL
▪ Miami Springs 7, Hialeah-Miami Lakes 6 (9 inn.): The Golden Hawks completed a perfect 21-0 regular season but had to work hard to do it. Springs saw a 6-2 lead going to the bottom of the seventh disappear as the host Trojans rallied to tie it. But a Bruce Yanez 2-out RBI double in the ninth scored Jason Torres and proved to be the game-winner.
GMAC BASEBALL STARTS MONDAY
It took until Saturday morning to finalize, but the field is now set for Monday’s GMAC baseball quarterfinals.
Top seeded and undefeated Miami Springs will host Coral Gables at its school at 3:30 p.m. while Westland Hialeah hosts TERRA at Walker Park in Hialeah at 3:30 p.m.
In the other bracket, Hialeah plays at Columbus at 6 p.m. while Goleman travels south to take on Southridge at 6 p.m.
Hialeah-Miami Lakes could’ve made the field had it pulled off an upset of Miami Springs on Saturday morning but Springs won the game in extra innings allowing Goleman to get in.