Sophomore duo powers Pine Crest girls’ volleyball past Gibbons and into regional final

Exactly a week ago the Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons and Fort Lauderdale Pine Crest girls’ volleyball teams met for a district title.

Much more was at stake Thursday at Pine Crest School with the opportunity to advance past the Class 4A regional semifinals.

Pine Crest dominated the game at the net to earn a 25-17, 25-14, 27-29, 25-17 victory and move on to a regional final on Tuesday against the winner of the Miami Gulliver Prep-Fort Lauderdale Calvary Christian regional semifinal to be played on Friday afternoon.

Pine Crest split the two regular season meetings with Gulliver Prep.

With the combination of sophomores Mia Gold and Isabella Sangha, the Panthers (19-9) repeatedly pounded the Chiefs (22-8) with powerful spikes that kept their opponent on the defensive.

Gold and Sangha each had double-digit kills that was key to Pine Crest dominating the first two sets. The Panthers trailed only briefly in the second set at 3-1.

In the deciding set and leading 15-13, Gold and Sangha combined for five kills while outscoring Gibbons 10-4.

“This far into the season myself and Isabella work well together not only for blocking but hitting,” Gold said. “It’s been a team effort and that’s been good. That helped us plenty in the first two sets.”

“Our mindset was to serve hard and be mindful at the net.” Pine Crest coach Eric Rivera said. “We did a really good job and were able to shut down Gibbons’ middle. I’m super proud of these girls.”

Dating back to 2007, this was the 23rd meeting the two schools. Since then the Chiefs led the series 11-3 in matches played in October.

Down 2-0, Gibbons found some resolve to battle through tight, back-and-forth third set.

The Panthers seemed on the verge of sweeping the match when they went up 23-20, but Gibbons rallied tying the score with three straight points.

Tied at 27, the Chiefs managed the final two points to get back into the match at 29-27.

“We didn’t have a great starter,” Cardinal Gibbons coach Kathryn Reeber said. “We couldn’t find the rhythm that we had a couple of weeks ago. We were hoping for one of those days where we would come out strong, but it didn’t happen.”

Senior Fabiana Capone led the Chiefs with 15 kills, while senior Teyhlor Thomas had 11 kills. Sophomore Ava Flores had 15 digs.

The Chiefs were seeking their first state title since capturing the Class 4A championship in 2015.

Last time Pine Crest advanced to a state final was 2007 losing to Lake Highland Prep (3A). The Panthers last state title came in 2003, which was the third of three straight state championships.