Southwest boys’ volleyball team falls to Freedom in state final

The tears flowed like they were going out of style. Fists pounded into chairs. Anguish was evident on all faces.

It wasn’t supposed to end this way for the Southwest boys volleyball team.

But it did.

The Eagles, who were on a mission to win it all following a state semifinal loss a year ago, made it back to the state championship game but came up short on Saturday night.

Ranked No. 2 in the state, Southwest faced the state’s No. 1 ranked team in Orlando Freedom and wound up getting swept out in straight sets, losing 3-0 (25-18, 29-27, 25-16). Freedom, ranked No. 23 in the nation by Max Preps, won a state title for the first time and finished 31-2.

The most awkward moment came when head coach Alain Suarez was presented with the runner-up trophy and players, having already been given their runnerup medals which they were trying to take off before being instructed otherwise, were asked to bunch together and pose for a team photo.

Senior Miguel Espinosa, all season one of the catalysts on this team, sobbed uncontrollably, even as the photo was being taken.

“A lot of pain right now because there was a lot of hard work to get here going all the way back to last summer, so to come up short like this, it’s really difficult,” said Suarez. “But this is a tough, resilient group. Last year we lost in the state semis and got one step further this year to the state final so next year hopefully we can make that final step.”

While losing in straight sets may not sound like it was close, the Eagles will forever lament a lost opportunity in the second set.

After getting outplayed in a first-set loss, Southwest came out in the second and took control. The Eagles enjoyed a 19-14 lead and still led 23-20, ready to make it 1-1.

Then came the collapse.

Thanks to back-to-back double hits by the Eagles’ setter, Freedom scored four straight to go up 24-23. When the Eagles battled back to go up 26-25, they had set point only to let a harmless free ball shot over the net fall in between all of them when nobody communicated.

When Freedom closed out the 29-27 win, things for all intent and purposes were over as shoulders slumped on the Southwest side. Freedom jumped on top early in the third set and never looked back.

“It’s not just about me, it’s about my family out there,” said Espinosa, pointing to his teammates, still sobbing and voice barely audible. “This is so tough right now, it wasn’t supposed to end this way.”

The Eagles, who finished 23-5, were looking for their third state title in program history and first since 2008. They did enjoy a nice moment earlier in the day when they dominated Lake Worth Park Vista from start to finish, defeating PV 3-0 (25-12, 25-20, 25-16) in a state semifinal matchup that got them into the title game.

But that wasn’t good enough for this team. The Eagles were settling for nothing but the top prize.

“We knew all along that Freedom was the team we were going to have to beat if we were going to win it all,” said team captain Jack Hershman, who led the way for his team with 18 kills. “Give them credit, they’re a very talented and well-deserving team. They outplayed us today and earned every bit of that trophy they have right now.”

As far as the turning point of the match was concerned, Hershman didn’t argue.

“I can’t believe it, we had that set and were ready to go to 1-1 and then to let it get away like that was killer,” he said. “We just made a couple of stupid errors. It wasn’t even the pressure that got us at that moment. It’s just that in this game, dumb errors happen and they happened at the wrong time right then.”

Freedom defeated three of the four South Florida teams over two days on its path to a state title.

The Patriots swept Belen Jesuit 3-0 in the state quarterfinals on Friday and knocked out Archbishop McCarthy, which won a five-set thriller late Friday night, 3-1 in the semifinals to make it to the title game.

McCarthy was the only team to take a set from the state champion in Boca Raton.

“Freedom is a great team and we knew it would be a big task today,” said McCarthy head coach Corey Marks. “Last night’s five setter might’ve gotten to us a little bit because it went really late and we had to get up early this morning so maybe we ran out of a little gas but you have to give all the credit to Freedom, they did what they had to do out there.”

After getting completely outplayed in the first two sets, the Mavericks (23-7) led by junior Omar Hoyos, battled back. They won the third set and then jumped out to an 8-4 lead early in the fourth before Freedom eventually got things turned back in its direction going on a 9-2 run to go up 13-10.

“Unfortunately we could never get them (Freedom) out of system,” said the 6-7 Hoyos who led the way with 18 kills, 11 digs, 5 blocks and has offers from most every major program in the country with BYU, USC and Pepperdine leading the way. “Their libero is really good, they were always in-system and their balls were perfect. They’re just a great team and really tough to handle.”

Down 19-13, McCarthy had one last run left, scoring five straight points to pull within 19-18 before Freedom when on a 6-2 run to close out the match. Raymond Lindo (7 kills) and Matias Bernardini (28 assists) also had solid performances for McCarthy.

Added Hoyos: “It was still great to get through our quarterfinal on Friday. Nobody expected us to be here on the second day and now we’ll carry on to next year and use this experience to carry us through and hopefully get back here next year and win it.”