Lourdes’ historic volleyball season ends with tough loss in state final

Lourdes Academy didn’t win the state title but it finished with a record-setting season.

Lourdes finished as the Class 5A girls volleyball state runners-up after dropping the championship match to Tallahassee Chiles 3-0 on Saturday at Polk State College.

“They were a tough team and they had so many hitters,” Lourdes head coach Pedro Penate said. “It was tough. We just tried to slow them down but we just didn’t execute tonight.”

Lourdes, making its first appearance at the state tournament in program history, lost 25-21, 25-7 and 25-16.

“I thought we had a good game plan coming in. We just didn’t execute it well,” Penate said.

Though Chiles was multi-talented and multi-faceted, Penate said the biggest obstacle wasn’t their size or depth but just dealing with Chiles’ ball rotation.

“They passed really well. That made them really good hitters. The goal was to win the first game. We came in a little tight and it showed, and we missed a couple of balls we normally don’t miss. The wheels came off after that,” Penate said.

Lourdes was led by senior outside hitter Ella Garcia with five kills and one dig while senior Olivia Guzman had four kills and one dig.

“We obviously brought in a game plan, but I don’t think we executed it as well,” Guzman said. “But we did make history though we didn’t get the outcome we planned coming into here. But I am really proud of the way we played and I am really proud of this program.”

Senior Ella Garcia said the team prepared pretty well but Chiles was just a very experienced team and it was definitely an advantage for them.

“I think we went in pretty confident but we always keep in the back of our heads that we need to be humble,” Garica said “We came in with a good mind, and we tried our best but it just didn’t go our way. We planned for it pretty well.”