Taylor’s clutch play leads Gulliver girls’ volleyball team to first state final four

It’s almost hard to believe that as great as the Gulliver girls’ volleyball program has been through the years, one big gaping hole on their resumé was a trip to the state final four.

The Raiders can now check that box off.

Gulliver, the No. 7 ranked team in the state regardless of classification and No. 1 in Class 4A, overcame a nervous start and settled in to defeat Fort Lauderdale Pine Crest 16-25, 25-23, 25-16, 25-22 in a Region 4-4A final on Tuesday night in front of its packed and noisy gym.

With the state having now returned to its original Final Four format where all four teams converge at a neutral site, the Raiders (27-3) will head to Polk State College in Winter Haven as the No. 1 seed and take on No. 4 Tampa Academy of Holy Names in a 4A state semifinal on Friday, Nov. 10 at either 10 a.m. or 1 p.m.

“Maybe it was nerves but we definitely didn’t play in that first set so I had to settle them down,” Gulliver coach Emilio Rodriguez said. “I told them that we have to just go out and play with the same ability and culture that we have all season long. That second set was huge. I told my coaches, we HAVE to steal this set. We knew darn well that we could not afford to go down 0-2 to a good team like Pine Crest and expect to come all the way back.”

Tuesday night was the rubber match between the two teams as they met at neutral site tournaments on Sept. 23 and Sept. 28 with Pine Crest winning the first match 2-0 before Gulliver came back with a 3-0 win the second time.

But there was a lot more on the line on this night and it took some senior leadership, namely in the form of University of North Carolina commit Jackie Taylor. Gulliver’s outside hitter stepped up in a big way, recording 20 kills including one very big one to close out the second set, the one the Raiders needed so badly.

Gulliver led 24-19 before Pine Crest (19-10) put on a furious rally, scoring four straight points to pull within 24-23. It was there that Taylor launched herself high off the ground thanks to a perfect set pass and rocketed a winning shot to close out the set and make it 1-1.

The Raiders took that momentum and cruised to a 25-16 win in the third but Pine Crest recovered and took control of the fourth set.

The Panthers led by as many as six points and were poised for force a fifth and deciding set, leading 21-18. That’s when Gulliver put together one last push, going on a 7-1 run to close things out and storm the floor in mass celebration.

“I think honestly when the moments are really big, we tend to really like want to go get it and maybe force things a little bit and that’s what might’ve happened to us in that first set,” said Taylor, who in addition to the 20 kills, also had five blocks. “After that first set, we took a step back, took a deep breath and got ourselves settled and calmed down. To stop looking at the big picture of the game and what was at stake and just go at it one point at a time.”

The win was also redemption from the pain the Gulliver players experienced a year ago when they hosted St. Brendan in a regional final and dropped a marathon five-set heartbreaker, one in which they actually had a match point in the fifth set before St. Brendan rallied.

“To be honest, what happened to us last year was a topic of discussion to speak freely about it all season long,” Rodriguez said. “It was painful for all of us. St. Brendan was a very good team and played well but we felt that we were the better team and should’ve been the team going on to state. Tonight we had another really good team who we had already played twice and lost to once and when they took it to us in that first set, it was up to these girls not to panic and settle down and play the kind of volleyball they were capable of.”

Taylor concurred that that St. Brendan loss was difficult to process but that in the end, it may have helped her team.

“In order to grow, sometimes you need to experience that kind of pain,” said Taylor, daughter of the late Gulliver, University of Miami and NFL football star Sean Taylor. “I think what happened last year really might’ve actually helped us tonight, not panicking after losing that first set.”

Pine Crest was looking for its first trip to state since 2017 and first state title since completing a three-peat in 2003.

“We got off to a great start but just could not keep that momentum,” Pine Crest coach Eric Rivera said. “But that had a lot less to do with our girls than it did with Gulliver. That’s a great team over there with a great coaching staff that was able to make the right adjustments. I just told my girls, we didn’t play bad, Gulliver just played a little bit better. Best of luck to them at state.”

Also turning in big contributions for the Raiders were Julia Rose Rivera (15 kills), Hailey Brenner (9 kills, 5 blocks), Kate Welty (8 kills), Maya Pace (50 assists) and Micaela Navarro (3 blocks).

Mia Gold, a highly talented sophomore outside hitter, led the way for Pine Crest with 21 kills.

This story was originally published November 1, 2023 at 12:25 AM.