Westminster Christian’s volleyball team earns another shot at elusive state championship
At this point, there’s not much more Westminster Christian’s girls’ volleyball team can say or do to get ready.
As their longtime coach Julie Doan put it on Tuesday afternoon: “We just have to go out and win it.”
Sounds simple.
But it hasn’t been for the Warriors, who have lost in the state championship match each of the past four years.
Fifth time’s a charm?
Westminster Christian gets to take another crack at it after sweeping Jacksonville Trinity Christian 25-22, 29-27, 25-17 in a Class 3A state semifinal on Tuesday morning at Polk State College in Winter Haven.
The Warriors (24-8) will take on Tampa Carrollwood Day for the state title on Thursday at 4 p.m.
Westminster Christian has won state titles - and not that long ago - winning it all in 2013 and 2016.
The Warriors’ fifth consecutive appearance in a state final extends their Miami-Dade record and gives them 10 trips to the state final in the past 13 seasons.
Both are milestones that, among South Florida teams, are only behind Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons, which had streaks of five, seven and eight consecutive years advancing to the state final during the Chiefs’ glory days under Hall of Fame coach Louise Crocco.
But Westminster’s two state crowns remain a distant second to Miami Sunset’s six, which is the most among Dade programs and a gap the Warriors would like to reduce starting Thursday.
“We keep talking about let’s just work through it,” Doan said. “To be honest, we haven’t really talked about the past four years or anything like that. We just keep working and moving forward.”
The Warriors might have shown signs Tuesday that things could turn out different this time.
At multiple times early in the match, things could have gone wrong for Westminster on the same court where a year earlier they saw their perfect season to that point end in a three-set loss to Clearwater Central Catholic.
Junior outside hitter and Missouri commit Zoey Matias refused to let that happen again.
Trailing 21-20 in the first set, Matias rattled off two consecutive aces to propel the Warriors to the set win and the early lead.
Westminster trailed by as many as seven points in the second before Matias again delivered several of her match-high 24 kills to rally Westminster for the win again.
The momentum swing allowed the Warriors to comfortably put away the match in three sets.
“Zoey was incredible and her work ethic is unlike most people across the country,” Doan said about Matias, who also had 17 digs. “That’s what makes her special.”
Gigi Artilles led Westminster at the net with 10 kills and both Alex Washington and Alyssa Cadavid paced the Warriors with efficient serving. Washington had 15 digs and Cadavid had 11.
“I thought we were very composed when we faced adversity,” Doan said. “We kept working and working and trying to find a way. Even if we didn’t perform how we wanted at some point we worked around it and didn’t let that affect us.”
This story was originally published November 7, 2023 at 4:39 PM.
