Two area volleyball teams — one veteran, one newcomer — are playing for state titles

In the end, there were two.

Six Miami-Dade and Broward County girls’ volleyball teams advanced to their respective state semifinals, but only two are making their way to Fort Myers for a chance to win it all.

The first is a regular in Class 8A’s St. Thomas Aquinas. The second, Class 3A’s Divine Savior, is heading to the championship for the first time. Class 9A’s Southwest, Class 5A’s Cardinal Gibbons, Class 4A’s Riviera Prep and Class 2A’s Miami Christian all fell short in their final four contest.

Here’s how all six matches unfolded:

▪ St. Thomas Aquinas 3, Venice 1: In a monster matchup of two of the best programs in the state, the St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders, with their noisy student body, had just finished off a hard-earned 3-1 (25-17, 25-21, 21-25, 25-21) victory over Venice in a Class 8A state semifinal in their home gym when the celebration began.

But it was who was not there that tugged away at the girls’ hearts. That somebody was longtime veteran head coach Lisa Zielinski.

Zielinski had to leave town suddenly for Gainesville on Friday due to a medical emergency involving her son, leaving her longtime assistant Heather Trebbien in charge to run the show.

And St. Thomas, which won three consecutive state titles from 2014-16 before falling to Venice on the road in last year’s state semi, responded impressively. The Raiders (25-5) never missed a beat in Zielinski’s absence as they won the first two sets over the defending 8A state champs and, after dropping the third set and trailing 19-17 in the fourth, dug down and found a way to close out the Indians to avoid a deciding fifth set.

They will now go for their fourth state title in five years when they take on Tampa Plant in the 8A state title match on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Suncoast Credit Union Arena in Fort Myers. Plant overcame an 0-2 deficit to win a five-set marathon thriller over Tallahassee Leon in the other semi.

“With Coach Zielinski not being here, it was really tough but the key was, even with her not being here, these girls were prepared and ready to go today and that speaks to the kind of preparation and detail that Lisa puts in with these girls,” said Trebbian. “It was almost like they were on auto-pilot. She trains them so well, they see the court so well because of her and how she prepares them. These girls knew exactly what they had to do to get this done today. They did it themselves, all the credit goes to them.”

After controlling the first two sets never allowing Venice to take a lead, the Raiders lost the momentum in the third as Venice (25-6) jumped out to as large as an eight point lead at 19-11. The key point in the match then came in the fourth set. Trailing 19-17, Aquinas then went on a crucial 5-0 run to grab a 22-19 lead and closed it out from there.

“Coach Lisa is such a big part of this team, we do everything for her,” said senior middle hitter and James Madison commit Sophia Davis who finished with eight kills and seven blocks. “Her not being here today, we knew we would have to step it up as a team, play together as a team and I think we did our job and I think she would be proud of us.”

“Our coach not being here just made us work harder and motivated us that much more,” said senior outside hitter and Florida Southern commit Paige Barash who led the way with 18 kills and 10 digs. “We practice very hard, three hours a day after school so we were prepared for this today.”

Also turning in big performances for St. Thomas were Kelsey O’Loughlin (20 assists), Mallory Barash (19 assists) and Amanda Silvestri who had 14 digs.

-Bill Daley

▪ Divine Savior 3, First Baptist Academy 0: In the week heading into their state semifinal appearance, Divine Savior coach Matt Willems said his team was playing with “house money.” With a team led by eight freshmen, the Sharks were seen as underdogs heading into the year.

On Saturday, they clinched their spot in their first state championship with a three-set sweep (26-24, 25-19, 25-19) over First Baptist Academy in a Class 3A state semifinal. Divine Savior (24-1) has now won 18 consecutive matches and has not dropped a set since Sept. 15.

Captain and junior outside hitter Fabiana Castro led the way with 25 kills, 11 digs and 2 blocks. Also key contributors: freshman Isabella Mendoza (13 kills, 7 digs), freshman Isabel Macia (38 assists, 11 digs), freshman libero Belyssa Cruz (18 digs) and freshman Sofia Lugo (7 kills, 3 blocks).

Divine Savior will face Bishop McLaughlin Catholic for the state title on Saturday at 1 p.m.

-Jordan McPherson

▪ Palm Beach Gardens 3, Southwest 0: It just wasn’t meant to be for the Southwest Eagles.

After grinding out back-to-back five-set thrillers to advance to the Class 9A state semifinals, Southwest fell flat early and dropped a three-set match (25-12, 25-10, 25-23) to Palm Beach Gardens.

It ended a remarkable season for first-year Southwest head coach Alain Suarez.

After falling behind by considerable margins in the first two sets, Southwest found its rhythm in Set 3 in a back-and-forth set before Palm Beach Gardens ripped off a late 6-0 run to take command for good.

-Jordan McPherson

▪ Cardinal Mooney 3, Cardinal Gibbons 1: Cardinal Gibbons’ bid to extend its girls’ volleyball championship record to 21 state titles will have to wait another year.

Instead of having the opportunity to play for a Class 5A title on Thursday in Fort Myers, the Chiefs were derailed by Sarasota Cardinal Mooney 25-23, 25-27, 25-22, 25-21 in a state semifinal match on Saturday at Cardinal Gibbons High.

Since 2003 when the Florida High School Athletic Association adopted the 25-point scoring system, the 11 total points that decided the four sets was the fewest in all Gibbons state series matches that went to at least four sets.

Cardinal Mooney (25-7) will play Ocala Trinity Catholic for the state title.

Gibbons (21-10) led most of the fourth set but eventually lost the lead at 21-20 when the Cougars’ Ashley Skye Ekes won the point with a block at the net. Sophia Hritz clinched the match with a winning kill.

“Cardinal Mooney came in ready to go and so did we,” Gibbons coach Kathryn Reeber said. “It was a great match all the way through.

“We sat back a little bit and hope they would make some mistakes and then we started making our own errors and that cost us. We stuck with them the best we could.”

The Chiefs led in all four sets, but only the second set when they opened with a to 7-0 lead did Mooney rally to win.

Gibbons nearly let the second set slip away. After leading 22-18, the Cougars reeled off five straight points. A pair of kills by Gibbons senior Jenna Giaquinto tied the score at 24-24 and 25-25 before winning 27-25.

Still the Chiefs couldn’t overcome late deficits, despite some outstanding play from Giaquinto, Caitlyn Faber and Aubrey Worley.

Giaquinto finished with 11 digs, nine kills, two blocks and two service points. Faber had 36 assists, 14 digs, eight service points, four blocks and two kills, while Worley finished with 16 digs, 12 service points and five assists.

-Dave Brousseau

▪ Palm Beach Benjamin 3, Riviera Prep 0: After rolling through the first two rounds of the postseason, Riviera Prep fell one match short of a state title game appearance. The Bulldogs had no answers on Sunday for Palm Beach Benjamin, which was firing on all cylinders and quickly swept Riviera Prep (25-17, 25-20, 25-17) to advance to the Class 4A state championship game against Shorecrest Prep.

▪ Geneva 3, Miami Christian 1: Miami Christian was no match for the Winter Park Geneva Knights, falling in four sets (25-23, 25-23, 22-25, 25-12) in the Class 2A state semifinals.

After dropping a pair of close sets to open the match, the Victors took Set 3 to keep the match and their season alive. But one set later, Geneva came out and routed Miami Christian 25-12 to punch its ticket to the state title game against Jacksonville’s Harvest Community.

This story was originally published November 11, 2018 at 12:06 PM.