Western rides momentum, tops Monarch

Wildcats display consistent dominance in sweep of Knights

DAVIE — Twelve was a lucky number for Western on Wednesday.

The Wildcats (20-6) held Monarch (11-14) to 12 points in all three sets as Western defeated the Knights 3-0 in the Class 9A regional quarterfinals.

“My [scorekeeper] always calls, she predicts the scores,” Wildcats coach Christina Paine said. “And she is right for a lot of them … After the second set, she was like, ‘What if all three of them are 12?’ ”

Although they lost by 39 points, the Knights kept the score close early to start.

In all three sets, they were within two points of the Wildcats. But all three times, Western stepped on the gas and took big leads.

“For us, when we have momentum, we’re in it,” Paine said. “Our energy levels — I tell them we’re like a mountain range. We have so much energy, then we lose it, and then we have energy and then we lose it.”

The closest Monarch came to seizing momentum back from Western was early in the second set. The Knights fought back from an 8-2 deficit to get to within 12-10.

But the Wildcats bolted back ahead with a 13-2 run to end the set.

Western earned many of their points on Monarch errors, but Kylee Haaf led the team with eight total points. Monica Francis was second with seven.

Paine said she was worried her team was still mentally exhausted from its district championship match against Cypress Bay, but the Wildcats kept the energy up and put Monarch away and set up a potential rematch with Cypress Bay in the regional semifinals.

“We had a crazy win last week, and so much energy was spent into beating Cypress, which we haven’t done in over six years, that I feel that they just haven’t recuperated from that,” Paine said. “Tonight, I’m like. ‘We could see them or we’re going to have Douglas. We’re going to have such a fight for us next week. Go into this last set and pretend that’s who you’re playing.’ ”