Hagerty’s season ends with 1st loss
Hagerty won the matchup of local teams in the quarterfinals of the inaugural FHSAA beach volleyball state finals at Florida State University in Tallahassee but fell short against a tough New Smyrna Beach squad in Saturday’s semifinals.
The Huskies (16-1) were undefeated before the loss to the Barracudas (23-1), who advanced to the championship against Vero Beach, a victor over Tampa Berkeley Prep in the other semifinal.
“We played great against Timber Creek and played very well against a good New Smyrna Beach team; they were a solid beach team,” Hagerty coach Juanita Hitt said.
In the morning quarterfinal match that was postponed on Friday due to weather adversity, the Huskies defeated Timber Creek 3-0 with the duos of Maddie Schwartz-Layla Miller, Mayte Camacho-Abby Mas and Anisa Mafarachisi-Alana Garcia winning matches for Hagerty.
This was the first FHSAA-sanctioned season for beach volleyball, and like most coaches Hitt had to manage around the schedules of players who also had indoor commitments.
“We had a great season going undefeated until the end,” she said. “There are a ton of indoor kids who have great ball control playing beach. Most of them are playing club, so splitting their time between beach and club is tough. But they did a fantastic job and we got better throughout the season.”
Two of Hagerty’s duos didn’t drop a match all season until the loss to New Smyrna Beach (Mafarachisi-Garcia and Brooke Stephens-Brielle Mullen) while Camacho-Mas stayed unbeaten since their match in the semifinal was still going when the Barracudas notched their clinching third duo victory.