Mater Lakes’ clutch play propels it to first ever state girls’ volleyball final
During what’s been a return to prominence this season for its program, the Mater Lakes’ girls’ volleyball team developed a knack for making big plays in the toughest of spots.
For the Bears on Thursday morning, every set against Jacksonville Bishop Kenny was closely-contested.
Mater Lakes then continued its trend of clutch play, coming through with the key points it needed each time in order to hold off the Crusaders, 25-21, 27-25, 25-21 in a Class 4A state semifinal at Polk State College in Winter Haven.
“At the beginning of the season, we’d have those close battles and lose at the end,” Mater Lakes coach Emilio Urgell said. “We were close at the end today and it’s something we’ve worked on all season to improve on. We’ve definitely played well under pressure.”
Over the past four years, Urgell has overseen - pretty much from scratch - the rebuilding of a championship contender at Mater Lakes.
The Bears made it to the state semifinals in 2019 for the first time and the regional final in 2020. Urgell took over in 2021 with the task of rebuilding Mater Lakes’ roster to make another run eventually.
The Bears (20-10), who won their ninth consecutive match, hope to see the fruits of that labor come Saturday morning when they vie for their first ever state championship in a match against six-time state champion Orlando Bishop Moore (22-7) in the 4A final. The Hornets, who are in the state final for the second consecutive season, advanced with a 3-0 win over Englewood Lemon Bay in Thursday’s other semifinal.
“We’ve seen a huge jump for this program little by little and it’s taken a lot of hard work,” Urgell said.
Senior outside hitter Sydney Wilson and junior outside hitter Sophia Bermudez have been at the heart of these efforts.
Each took different paths to reach this level of success.
Wilson, an accomplished All-Dade first team point guard on the basketball court for Miami High, brought her skills to the volleyball court at Mater Lakes in the fall over the past couple of seasons.
On Thursday, Wilson finished with 13 kills, 14 assists and 13 digs, showing her versatility all over the court. A lefty hitter, Wilson scored the decisive kills in both the first and third sets to clinch the match.
“Sydney does everything at a high level. She does so much for us,” Urgell said of Wilson, who is a home-schooled student and continues to play basketball in the winter at Miami High. “She is a great player and student. She’s already taken advanced classes at FIU and she’s planning on going to UCF. She’s at that level where if she wants she could try to walk on and play volleyball there if she wanted to try.”
Bermudez arrived at Mater Lakes as an eighth grader and had never played the game at all.
Four years later, Bermudez, a 6-2 outside hitter, has developed into one of the better hitters in Miami-Dade County and showed it again Thursday with 13 kills.
The combination of Bermudez and senior middle hitter Juliet Murillo gave the Bears a formidable block at the net.
Senior outside hitter Mia Garcia complements the attack with her defense and passing as she did again with 27 digs against the Crusaders.
Mater Lakes knows it will need to utilize its size advantage even more against Bishop Moore on Saturday.
“They’re not a team with a lot of size, but they are very much about ball control and a very skilled team,” Urgell said. “We have to use our size at the net and out block them. We’ve been playing really good defense and running balls down, but blocking will be the key.”
