Lourdes volleyball breaks through to first state final four with victory over McCarthy
Ella Garcia is one of seven seniors on the Lourdes girls’ volleyball team who had been striving for over five years for that one moment they could all make school history.
Garcia and her teammates had lived through the heartbreaks of two consecutive trips to the regional finals that ended with defeats denying the Bobcats that elusive first ever berth in the state final four.
On Wednesday night inside a packed home gym, Lourdes finally flipped the script.
Led by Garcia, and other seniors such as Olivia Guzman and Amanda Rodriguez, the Bobcats rallied early and outlasted visiting Fort Lauderdale Archbishop McCarthy for a 25-23, 25-20, 26-24 victory in the Region 4-5A final.
“It’s incredible. We’ve been building for this,” Lourdes coach Pedro Penate, who is in his 14th season directing the Bobcats program. “We’ve been here for three years and we started with a really young group. Now we have seven seniors and three juniors, an experienced group.
“I’ve coached a lot of them since they were 12 years old. They’ve been there since both my kids were born. It’s a special moment. They’re literally like family.”
Penate, who experienced what it was like to win a state championship as a player at his alma mater Southwest Miami, hopes his team can feel that same thrill next week when they head up to Winter Haven for the school’s first ever appearance in a state final four.
Lourdes (19-8) advances as the No. 2 seed in the bracket and will take on No. 3 seed Port Charlotte (19-8) either at 4 or 7 p.m. on Nov. 7 in a Class 5A state semifinal at Polk State College in Winter Haven. Should the Bobcats advance to the final, they would play Nov. 9 at 4 p.m. against either top-seeded Tallahassee Chiles or No. 4 seed Orlando Innovation.
Lourdes was bounced from the playoffs in this round each of the past two years by St. Thomas Aquinas. The Raiders, who are also headed back to state after a regional final win Wednesday over South Plantation, moved up to Class 6A this season.
The Bobcats got a glimpse of the most likely obstacle to replace Aquinas in its region early in the season when it played McCarthy (21-7) on Sept. 4 at the Mavericks’ home gym. McCarthy won that match 3-0, but Lourdes players felt confident that if they earned a rematch things would be different.
“It’s been an amazing season. We made it a goal, the seven seniors, that we were going to get this far,” Garcia said. “Early in the season we had a tough loss to them so we made it a goal to reverse it. The beginning was rough, but we knew we’d pull it out at the end. I’m super happy right now.”
McCarthy was making its first regional final appearance since 2019 and fell short of what would have been its own first trip to state.
The Mavericks’ night started rough as the bus transporting them to Miami had some issues and they arrived at the gym 15 minutes before the scheduled start time.
McCarthy didn’t appear to be affected though as it jumped out to a quick lead and battled Lourdes in a back-and-forth first set.
But Garcia and Guzman helped set the tone and rallied Lourdes with precise blocking up front and attacks.
The match’s final score was more lopsided than it appeared as every set was tightly-contested. Lourdes’ balance both up front and on the back row allowed it to pull away each time.
“We love big games like this and thank God we rose to the occasion,” Garcia said. “We’ve been coming up a little bit short every season, but we knew we had to make history and this will encourage other seniors that they can make it too.”
MORE RESULTS
Region 4-4A final - Mater Lakes d. North Broward Prep 25-10, 25-12, 25-15: The Bears (19-10) clinched their first ever trip to the state final four. Mater Lakes will advance as the No. 3 seed and play Jacksonville Bishop Kenny in a state semifinal at either 10 a.m. or 1 p.m. on Nov. 7 at Polk State College in Winter Haven.
Region 4-6A final - St. Thomas Aquinas d. South Plantation 25-7, 25-11, 25-12: Mikayla Porter nine kills, five digs, three aces and 12 assists to lead the Raiders (20-7), who did not drop a set in regionals and advanced to state to chase their eighth state title overall and second in a row. Malia Brooks had 17 assists, six digs and two aces. Emmi Merhi had eight kills and Sydney Guerrier had seven kills.
Aquinas will be the No. 2 seed and take on No. 3 seed Land O’Lakes Sunlake in a state semifinal on Nov. 8 at either 10 a.m. or 1 p.m. at Polk State College in Winter Haven. If the Raiders advance to the final, they would play Nov. 9 at 1 p.m. against either top seeded Gulf Breeze or No. 4 seed Palm Beach Gardens Dwyer.
Region 4-7A final - Boca Raton d. Cypress Bay 25-21, 25-27, 21-25, 25-18, 15-13: The Lightning’s unbeaten season which saw them win 20 consecutive matches without a loss ended with a heartbreaker at their home gym. Cypress Bay came up a couple of points short of what would have been its first trip to the state final four since 2004.
Region 4-1A final - Boca Raton Christian d. Sagemont 25-20, 25-17, 25-7: The Lions finished 19-8.
This story was originally published October 31, 2024 at 12:37 AM.
