Mater Academy’s Alderete and Westminster’s Matias win Dade Volleyball Players of the Year

While they have never actually played on the same volleyball team, Emily Matias and Angeles Alderete have known each other since a very young age.

“I think it was when I was in sixth grade,” said Matias. “We played club and would go up against each other all the time. We really pushed each other which I think made both of us better.”

“We always battled each other and it was a little bit of a rivalry but we had fun with it at the same time,” said Alderete. “It’s pretty cool that we both got it at the same time.”

The “it” Alderete refers to is the Miami Herald’s Player of the Year Award. After leading her Mater Academy Lions to a second consecutive Class 6A state title a few months ago, Alderete, a senior outside hitter who is headed to East Carolina, was named the Herald’s 7A-5A Player of the Year.

Meanwhile Matias, a junior, led Westminster Christian to a third consecutive state final and was named the 4A-2A Player of the Year.

And you can file this one into the “it’s a small world” category as Emily’s father, Nelson Matias, has worked under Mater Academy volleyball coach Elsa Lopez (the Herald’s 7A-5A Co-Coach of the Year) in the Mater PE department for the last 15 years. Emily Matias actually attended Mater in the sixth grade, where she first met Alderete, before transferring to Westminster as a seventh grader.

For Alderete, it marked the second year in a row she received the honor. As a junior a year ago, she led the Lions to their first-ever state title and then finished her high school career in style by leading her team to a 26-7 record and 3-0 (25-22, 26-24, 25-20) victory over a very good Ponte Vedra team in the 6A state final in Fort Myers.

“Two years in a row, what an honor,” said Alderete, who finished her 2021 season with 287 kills for a 45.2 kill percentage. “While the individual accolades are nice, to be honest it’s the talent around me with my teammates and a great coach like Miss Lopez that have really created this opportunity for me.

“And winning state for a second straight time was the greatest accomplishment because that was a team effort, not an individual effort. It felt great to prove everyone wrong because everybody kind of though our first title last year was kind of a fluke but we knew we could get back and do it again.”

For Matias, it wasn’t such a happy ending. For the third year in a row, she helped lead her Warriors team all the way to the 4A state final in Fort Myers – only to be agonizingly turned away for the third straight year, having to settle for runner-up medals each time.

“Making it all the way to the state final is nice but losing for the third straight year was really tough,” said Matias, an outside hitter who finished the season with 292 kills, 162 service points, 47 aces and 112 digs before dropping the 4A final to Clearwater Calvary Christian. “Losing is not part of our DNA and we really thought this was our year. The only good thing is that we have our entire team returning next year so hopefully we can get back again and this time finish it off.”

While she had to watch her “rival” Angeles wrap a winning medal around her neck in Fort Myers and having to settle for a runner-up medal herself, Matias can take solace in that the two teams met twice this past season and Westminster got Mater both times, winning a five-set thriller on Sept. 15 and then beating the Lions 2-0 in a tournament in early October.

“Beating Mater twice was great because we knew how good they were,” said Matias, who has multiple college offers but is still deciding on whether to pursue indoor volleyball or beach volleyball which she also excels in. “When you win games like that during the season, it makes you better in the postseason.”