Pine Crest overcomes Gulliver to advance to state girls’ volleyball semifinals
The Fort Lauderdale Pine Crest girls’ volleyball team dealt with the frustration of falling one victory short of the state final four each of the last two years to the same team.
But on Tuesday night at Gulliver Prep’s gym in Miami, the Panthers finally kicked that elusive door down.
The Panthers, who won the first set in each of those regional finals against Gulliver, only to lose the next three and watch the Raiders celebrate at their expense, didn’t have to watch them celebrate on this night.
The Raiders instead had to watch Pine Crest players celebrate as the Panthers rolled past Gulliver in straight sets by scores of 25-20, 25-18 and 26-24 in a Region 4-3A final.
“I brought it up and reminded them briefly about it after practice yesterday but didn’t bring it up again as it was important to have them in the right mindset coming down here today to play a great Gulliver team,” Pine Crest coach Eric Rivera said. “We knew coming in here tonight that we were going to have to play really, really well to find a way to come out on top and that’s exactly what our girls did. I can’t be more proud of them.”
With the win, Pine Crest punched its first ticket to the state final four since 2017.
The Panthers (20-10) will now head north to Polk State College in Winter Haven on Monday as the No. 3 seed and take on No. 2 Orlando Lake Highland Prep in 3A state semifinal at 10 a.m. Pine Crest will be looking to win the program’s fourth state title but first since 2003 when they completed a three-peat as state champions.
Leading the way for the Panthers was senior captain and outside hitter Mia Gold.
On the team since the eighth grade, Gold has risen to become one of the top players in Broward County and showed it on Tuesday night as she recorded 17 kills.
“I don’t know, driving down here today, I just had a feeling it was going to be different this time and a positive outcome for us,” said Gold, a Boston College commit. ”It was different tonight (than the past two years) because we’ve been playing so much as a team recently. We knew we could’ve won either one of those two games last year or two years ago but maybe going through the experience and heartbreak of losing them helped us get through tonight. I’m just so proud of my teammates. This is such a big moment for our program and now we want to go upstate and try and bring the whole thing home.”
The first set was nip and tuck until Pine Crest, trailing 18-17 broke loose with a mini 5-0 spurt to go up 22-18, Gold coming through with a pair of kills during the stretch.
Down 1-0, some maybe thought Gulliver (21-8) had the Panthers right where they wanted them.
Sure enough, the Raiders, who were looking for a third straight trip to state, having won the program’s first state title in 2023, jumped out to a quick lead in the second set and were up 13-10 midway through. But the Panthers were determined not to let history repeat itself.
Led by Gold, went on a 9-1 run to go up 19-14. Gold recorded three kills during that run as Pine Crest then cruised to the second set win and a 2-0 lead.
Again, Gulliver jumped out to a short lead in the third set and still led 22-18 late in the set. Just three points away from Gulliver forcing a fourth set, the Panthers went on a 5-1 run to tie things at 23. Gulliver then scored to make it set point before Pine Crest then scored the next three points to close things out. A kill shot by outside hitter Gabriela Florian was the game-winner as Panther players headed for the center of the floor for a mass celebration.
“My speech to the girls was that they needed to believe and needed to understand that we are a really good team,” Rivera said. “We entered tonight with the right mindset, were able to execute and take advantage of their (Gulliver) mistakes. But the biggest key, the most important thing was that we were in control of our minds, mentally focused and blocking out all the outside noise. Such a great moment for our program tonight and the culmination of a lot of patience and hard work.”
This story was originally published October 29, 2025 at 8:43 AM.