Winter Park wears the crown
Counting a preseason match, Freedom and Winter Park boys volleyball had faced each other four times before Saturday’s FHSAA state championship at Archbishop McCarthy in Southwest Ranches.
So, of course, both teams would survive tough semifinals to face off for a fifth time in the title match. And unlike the last two times they met in the regular season at the Freedom tournament and Metro East Conference tourney, the Wildcats prevailed.
It took five sets for Winter Park (28-2) to capture its first boys volleyball state title with a 25-23, 25-23, 16-25, 22-25, 15-10 win over the Patriots.
It was the first FHSAA tournament loss for Freedom (29-4) since 2017 after it had won backto-back state titles (2019 and 2021 with the 2020 season canceled due to COVID-19).
“Not many programs can say championship, championship, runner-up in a three-year span,” Freedom coach Gina McFerren said. “Winter Park was the better team today.”
The Wildcats were also the more-rested team when the championship match arrived at 4 p.m. They won the first semifinal in four sets over Cardinal Gibbons (28-25, 25-21, 25-27, 25-22) and had almost four hours’ rest before the final.
“Getting past Cardinal Gibbons in four sets and having the break helped us,” Winter Park coach
Jesse Day said. “But Freedom has so much experience as back-toback state champs that we knew they would fight until the end.”
The Patriots needed to come from behind to beat Lake Mary in five tough sets (24-26, 23-25, 25-19, 25-23, 15-11) in the second semifinal, with only 30 minutes between that match and the final.
“Our guys played tough with 10
sets in two matches and pushed themselves to exhaustion,” McFerren said.
Lake Mary had just two losses all season (27-2). The Rams had needed five sets to defeat Park Vista in the last quarterfinal Friday night, finishing after 9:30 p.m.
“The boys played their hearts out and just ran out of gas,” Lake Mary coach Louis Reyes said.
“Yesterday’s five games took a lot out of us, especially late evening.
“The season as a whole was very good. Our goal was to get to a position for a shot at the title and we just came up short.”