Doral’s move pays off as Firebirds top Cypress Bay to advance to state semis

Sometimes, you just have to step up, roll the dice and take a chance.

Doral Academy girls’ volleyball coach Julio Arnaiz did on Wednesday night after watching his team drop the first set to Weston Cypress Bay, a team that had already taken them down two weeks earlier in the district championship game.

Worried that his girls were about to go down the same road again, he decided to shake things up. He shuffled his lineup around after that first set, putting some girls on the court that had not played recently.

And the gamble paid off.

With a berth in the state final four on the line, Doral Academy turned things around in a big way, winning the next three sets to knock off Cypress Bay 3-1 (18-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-20) in a Region 4-7A final at Cypress Bay High School.

“The first set obviously didn’t go very well so I took a chance and made a few substitutions,” Arnaiz said. “I had been using the same lineup for the past four games so it was a bit of a gamble but I felt we needed to change things up or we might’ve met the same fate as a few weeks ago when they beat us in districts.”

The two biggest names to come off the bench were freshman Libero Amayiah Bello and sophomore outside hitter Katherin Lobaina. Lobaina recorded 11 kills.

“The girls coming from the bench really stepped up in a big way,” Arnaiz said. “All year we’ve been talking about ALL the girls being ready to go in at any time and to step up if their number was called and that’s exactly what happened.”

The Firebirds (16-13) punched their ticket to state for the third time in the last five seasons and will once again head north to Polk State College in Winter Haven. But if Doral thought they played the role of underdogs on Wednesday night, the Firebirds haven’t seen anything yet.

They will enter as the No. 4 seed and take on top seeded Winter Park in a 7A state semifinal on Thursday, Nov. 6 at 7. Winter Park is not only No. 1 in the state in Class 7A but overall regardless of classification.

Some of those who did not come off the court were senior outside hitter Micaela Velez and sophomore outside hitter Marcela Carmona. Together they combined for 20 kills (12 for Velez and eight for Carmona) with Velez also recording six blocks. Amy Smith also had a big night recording 42 assists, four digs and three aces.

“I’m literally in shock right now, it almost doesn’t feel real,” said Carmona amid the euphoric Doral celebration. “Every single day we watched a lot of film from that district game over and over again to try and get ready for this game tonight. I feel like we were more disciplined out there tonight than last time. We also picked up our energy which might’ve been a little low at the start. But once we got rolling, they couldn’t stop us.”

The key might’ve been quick starts to each set. After dropping that first set, Doral jumped out to an 8-1 lead in the second set and rode that cushion all the way home to make it 1-1. The Firebirds jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the second and, after the Lightning rallied to within one point, used a 7-1 run to pull away and re-establish a big cushion to eventually win 25-21 to go up 2-1.

With all the momentum, Doral did not let up. The Firebirds used an 8-2 run in the third set to break free from a 10-10 tie in the fourth set and led by as much as 22-15.

“Everything we watched on them (Cypress Bay) they are especially tough when they jump out to quick and big leads,” said Arnaiz. “When you allow them to have big leads then they serve tougher and put a lot of pressure on your side defensively. One of our number one goals was to come out and pretend like we were playing to 10 points.”

As far as the daunting task now in front of his team, which dropped both of its state semifinal appearances to the same team (Tampa Plant) in 2021 and 2023, all Arnaiz could do was shrug his shoulders.

“We’ll be the underdogs for sure going up there,” said Arnaiz. “But these girls were the underdogs tonight and there they are out there on the floor celebrating right now.”

For Cypress Bay, which finished 17-8, it was more frustration and heartbreak as Wednesday night marked the program’s 10th loss in the regional finals since its last visit to the state final four in 2004 which included a five-set heartbreaker to Boca Raton last year.