Gibbons’ setter, inspired by ailing father, leads Chiefs to state volleyball semifinals
One look at Cardinal Gibbons’ boys’ volleyball team and it’s obvious why they are the top-ranked team in the state.
The frontline alone of UCLA signee Thiago Zamprogno, UCLA commit David Decker and Penn State signee Caden Day is enough to intimidate most opponents.
But behind them is the Chiefs’ conductor, who makes it all work.
That’s senior setter Gino Briglio.
Propelled by his 30 assists, Gibbons moved a step closer to winning the school’s third state title in the sport on Friday afternoon when they beat South Broward 25-18, 25-12, 25-23 in a state quarterfinal matchup at Archbishop McCarthy.
The Chiefs (28-2) will next take on Winter Park (25-2), which beat Miami High in another quarterfinal, on Saturday in a semifinal at 10 a.m. A victory would put Gibbons, which is seeking its first state title since 2018, in the championship match later in the day at 4 p.m.
South Broward (18-6) was making its fifth consecutive appearance at the state tournament and was led by Cameron Thorne’s seven kills and Colton Bueter’s six kills.
Briglio’s precise passing helped the Chiefs’ trio of Division-I recruits score a combined 28 kills on only 35 attempts. Day finished with 11 kills, Decker had 10 and Zamprogno totaled seven.
“We just had to spread the ball around and implement our middle like we know how to do,” said Brigilio, who signed to play college volleyball at Erskine College. “I can trust any of them any time I want on the court.”
That trust goes both ways as does the respect Gibbons has for their fourth-year starting setter.
So when Briglio recently began dealing with adversity off the court, he had his teammates and coaches’ support.
Gibbons dedicated the remainder of its season to Brigilio’s father, Sandy, who was recently diagnosed with lung cancer.
“He found out a couple of weeks ago,” Gibbons coach Mike Zarate said. “He was pretty distraught about it, but his dad is doing better. He’s been holding it together really really well.
“He’s really humble, doesn’t complain and just gets the job done. We’ve got all these Division-I athletes but if we didn’t have him we wouldn’t have made it to state.”
Brigilio made the choice to play for Gibbons even though his older brother played at rival St. Thomas Aquinas, where he also has several friends enrolled.
Over that time, Briglio has refined his skills as a passer and become one of the best players in the state at the position.
“My team’s support means a lot because this is a family,” Briglio said. “(My dad)’s been an inspiration for me out there.”
State quarterfinal - Winter Park d. Miami High 25-21, 25-21, 27-25: In three years, the Stingarees (24-7) have evolved into one of the state’s best teams. This season, more steps were taken in the right direction, winning a GMAC championship and another district and regional title.
But Miami High’s squad saw on Friday how much it still needs to improve when it couldn’t overcome Winter Park’s daunting front line of Robert Cole Colado, Ryan Peluso and Andrew Webb in a three-set loss. Led by Peluso, who started his prep career at Ransom Everglades and finished with 16 kills, the trio combined for 36 kills overall.
As he did throughout the season, senior Denzel Madrigal led the Stingarees with 12 kills while senior Bryan Meraz had 11 without an attacking error.
But Winter Park put together more sustained stretches of success.
Cabanzon lamented not being able to create more scoring opportunities for Madrigal, which didn’t come until the third set.
“I think we could have done a couple of things differently and used Denzel better, we might have had a different outcome,” Miami High coach Rafael Cabanzon said. “We could have composed ourselves a little better. We were there and the game slipped out of our hands because we couldn’t control our emotions well.”
Miami High graduates six of its top seven players, making the challenge for next season clear - find a way to keep its success going.
Madrigal is confident the core group of him, Meraz, setter Gabriel Cabanzon (Coach Cabanzon’s younger brother who had 29 assists on Friday), Hector Alarcon, Eduardo Hernandez and Aurel Nyemeck started a tradition that won’t fade any time soon.
“When we started we didn’t have much of a team and didn’t know how to play,” Madrigal, who is from Cuba, said in Spanish. “We started training and getting better and now we’ve started something here (at Miami High).”
Orlando Freedom d. Southwest Miami, 25-23, 25-15, 25-16: The Eagles (22-9), a perennial state contender, had one of their roughest outings ever at the state meet on Friday against a familiar nemesis.
Barely anything went right as Freedom, the two-time defending state champions, capitalized on numerous Southwest mistakes including 25 attacking errors to cruise into the state semifinals.
“Offensively, we didn’t execute anything today,” Southwest coach Alain Suarez said. “It didn’t matter how well we dug or how well our serve-receive was. We passed the ball well like we’ve done most of the season, but we didn’t make anything happen at the net.”
The match was a rematch of the past two state championship finals in 2019 and 2021, each won by Freedom. The two teams met in the quarterfinals this season with Freedom seeded second and Southwest entering the tournament as the No. 7 seed.
The Eagles were making their 11th appearance at state all-time, but have not won a championship since 2008.
Alessandro DeLaO led Southwest with 15 kills while Marlon Albornoz and Carlos Gancedo each had eight kills. Erick Pinzon had 29 assists.
But Freedom (27-3), led by Cameron Gray’s 10 kills, connected on 35 of their 43 kill attempts.
“We were swinging but the ball wasn’t going where we wanted it to go,” Suarez said. “We had a ton of errors at the net. If you add it all up we gave them probably over a set worth of points. You can’t win like that, especially against a team as good as they are.”
