True North survives marathon match to win first state boys’ volleyball title
True North’s boys’ volleyball players were pseudo celebrities around their school last year after making it to the state final four.
But on Monday morning, that status surged even more.
The Titans survived the grind.
First, during a grueling season in which they squared off against some of the state’s best squads including Class 3A state champion Columbus, Southwest, Archbishop McCarthy, Varela, Cardinal Gibbons and Altamonte Springs Lake Brantley to name a few.
And then there was Saturday night at Polk State College in Winter Haven.
True North saw a 2-0 lead in sets nearly slip away before finishing off SLAM Academy Tampa in a five-set thriller (25-22, 25-19, 26-28, 36-38, 15-12).
And now, the Titans can walk around school with their gold medals and a brand-new state championship.
It was the program’s first and only the second sport in which True North has won a state team title, joining its tennis teams in recent years.
“We worked hard and had the strongest strength of schedule right before the playoffs,” True North coach Jonathan Losada said. “Practices definitely were competitive, and everyone wanted it so bad that we played the way we did and got it done.”
The Titans (21-10), who lost a five-set match to SLAM on April 17 during the regular season, found itself in another struggle on Saturday after winning the first two sets.
True North was unable to close out the third set in extra points and then played a marathon within a marathon during the fourth set before the Spartans tied the match.
“We had a little bit of adversity with the refs and those guys, but our seniors stepped up, and we powered through,” Losada said.
A sophomore, Marco Sanchez, came to True North’s rescue and led it to the decisive win in the fifth.
The Titans graduate four players overall, but Saturday’s triumph could just be the beginning.
Sanchez, a 6-5 right side, led the Titans with 29 kills, 10 digs and seven blocks. Junior Rylan Munger had 14 kills and eight blocks, and sophomore Kaden Rosario had 15 kills and four blocks. Senior Octavio Blanco had 11 blocks. Senior setter Aisar Hernandez paced True North’s attack with 65 assists and four aces. He also stepped on defense with 23 digs, along with senior libero Alejandro Ruiz, who finished with 35 digs.
“We were gritty,” Losada said. “Marco Sanchez had a great run there at the end and Ruiz picked up a lot of balls there at the end.”
For Losada, it was a special day overall, as True North’s championship followed a championship win in Class 3A for Columbus and its coach Daniel Thews, who coached with Losada at True North for three seasons before leaving to coach the Explorers.
“It’s a storybook ending,” Losada said.
BELEN FALLS IN FINAL
Despite a valiant effort to secure the school’s first trip to the state championship game, the Wolverines were unable to overcome reigning champion Winter Park Lake Howell in the 2A final, and suffered a tough 27-25, 26-24, 31-29 loss.
Belen (25-7), which made it to state for the first time since 2019, battled in all three sets, but couldn’t finish in any of them.
William Essig led the Wolverines with 20 kills and Justin Garcia had 16 kills and two blocks. Daniel Del Pino had 23 digs and William Pedraja had 22 assists.
