Freedom, Lake Mary, Winter Park win state quarterfinals

All season long, Central Florida proved to be the true center of boys volleyball with three teams ranked in the top five most of the year.

All three of those teams — Winter Park, Freedom and Lake Mary — reached the state quarterfinals at Archbishop McCarthy in Southwest Ranches and they showed why they were ranked so high.

Winter Park survived three tough sets, including a roller-coaster final set, to defeat Miami 25-21, 25-21, 27-25 in Friday’s second quarterfinal. The Wildcats (26-2) advances to the first semifinal at 10 a.m. on Saturday to face Cardinal Gibbons, which swept South Broward in the first quarterfinal.

“We started that last set down 6-1 with no momentum, but we finally got things together,” Winter Park coach Jesse Day said. “We tried to contain [Miami’s] best player [Denzel Madrigal] and we did our best.”

The Wildcats held Madrigal to 12 kills and one block while Ryan Peluso and Robert Cole Colado were a potent one-two combination for Winter Park. Peluso had 16 kills, 20 assists and 10 digs, while Colado had 11 kills, 23 assists, nine digs and seven aces.

It’s the second time the Wildcats have reach the state semifinals with the previous time in 2012 before losing in the final four.

Freedom, which is the two-time defending state champion, also swept its quarterfinal with a little more ease, 25-23, 25-15, 25-16 over Southwest Miami.

“The difference was that we were able to control the net,” Patriots coach Gina McFerren said. “We were able to involve all of our hitters.”

McFerren added some kudos for Sean Dogaer providing a spark off the bench with his blocking.

Andre Aguilar led Freedom’s dominance at the net with 12 kills, seven blocks to go with 12 assists, seven digs while Cameron Gray had 10 kills and eight digs and Matthew McIntyre added five kills, 14 assists and five digs.

Lake Mary (27-1) made it three region teams in the final four, but it wasn’t easy. The Rams survived five tough sets for a 25-11, 21-25, 25-18, 19-25, 15-12 victory over Park Vista. They’ll now face Freedom in Saturday’s second semifinal.

A big reason for the three Central Florida teams’ success is that they got to face each other multiple times.

“Having three local teams [in the state finals] is great for the sport in our area,” Lake Mary coach Louis Reyes said. “It shows how our programs have progressed. The competition between us with Winter Park and Freedom really set the tone for us. It showed me and my team that we can be competitive with the top teams. Even the loss to Winter Park allowed us to work on a few things and not take anything for granted.”