Standout season ends at Doral

DORAL — Doral Academy (21-8) is headed to its first Class 7A state final four following a 25-22, 23-25, 25-23 and 25-19 victory over visiting South Plantation on Saturday afternoon.

South Plantation coach Tania Lam was proud of her team’s season which came to an end as they played in their second regional final in school history. The other came in 1998 when they fell in the Class 5A tournament.

“It wasn’t our day,” said Lam, whose team won its first district title in 21 years. “They have all of the talent and all of the capabilities, and we picked this day to have an off day. We had too many missed serves that were critical in the third set when we had the lead and it just hurt us.”

South Plantation (22-3) competed in the state series 12 times, and this was the second time they played in the regional finals — the other came in 1998 when they fell to Cypress Lake in three games in Class 5A.

The Paladins, who had only lost 14 sets all season entering the match, also saw its 7-game undefeated streak on the road come to an end.

Doral Academy will travel to Tampa Plant in the state semifinals on Nov. 13 at 2 p.m.

Doral jumped out to a 14-10 advantage in the first set before South Plantation rallied to tie the score at 17-17 before the Firebirds pulled out the win thanks to four straight service points by Melissa Gonzalez to up the lead to 24-18.

The Paladins staged a comeback to close the margin to 24-22, but Tyra Smith was long on her serve attempt to give Doral Academy the first set, 25-22.

South Plantation came out strong in the second set grabbing an 11-6 lead on five service points in a row by Heidy Carralero.

After Doral evened the score at 14-14, the Paladins’ Smith served up three straight points thanks to a block and a kill by Maria Ustick to push the advantage to 17-14.

A kill by Elena Lam, coupled with a net violation by Doral pushed the lead to 20-15.

The Firebirds were able to close the gap to 23-22 before Ustick had a kill and Cyan Long finished off the game with an ace.

The Paladins were led by freshman Elana Lam (15 kills, 2 aces), junior Ustick (15 kills, 2 blocks), junior Jessica Rodriguez (34 assists, 4 aces).

South Plantation, with just four seniors and nine underclassmen on the squad, controlled play in the third set as it held as much as a fivepoint lead at 18-13, but the Firebirds rallied to outscore the Paladins, 12-4 thanks to the strong net play of Ariel Simmons, Alexa Novo and Izabela Molina who combined for nine kills.

South Plantation seized the lead in the fourth set before faltering down the stretch. Molina recorded a kill off a block to snap a 16-16 deadlock and Victoria Escuer had four straight points off serve to up the lead to 20-17.

The Firebirds closed out the match on a 5-2 run for their seventh straight win.