Top-ranked Lake Brantley, Hagerty, Osceola, Dr. Phillips push through 5 sets

Lake Brantley is the top-ranked Orlando area team in the Florida High School Athletic Association’s girls volleyball power rankings. But the Patriots had to come from behind to defeat underdog DeLand in a marathon region semifinal Saturday afternoon.

The Patriots dropped the first two sets before pulling out a 26-28, 17-25, 25-22, 25-23, 15-10 homecourt victory.

Lake Brantley’s high-flying trio of Sam Bowron, Sarah Gooch and Amina N’diaye — all six rotation standouts who never left the floor — combined to make the big plays the Patriots had to have to prevail against a quick, creative DeLand squad.

“We just had a lot of grit,” Gooch said afterward. “Seniors don’t want to be done yet. We want that state title.”w

Lake Brantley (23-6), a region finalist last season, will take another shot at reaching the final four when it hosts Seminole Athletic Conference rival Hagerty (20-8) in Wednesday night’s Class 7A Region 1 championship match.

The Patriots edged the Huskies in a five-setter during the regular season.

Gooch, one of just three seniors on the Brantley roster, had 12 kills and also delivered on defense in a match that lasted more than two hours.

Bowron, a junior, led the Patriots with 19 kills and also contributed as a server, setter and blocker.

N’diaye, a standout sophomore, had 14 kills, including a number of big swings that were all but impossible to stop.

Senior libero Avery Demetree contributed 38 digs and talented ninth-grader Ava White came off the bench to make a difference.

“The difference in the second half of the match is we started playing a lot cleaner,” said Lake Brantley coach Allan Knight. “We played together, as a team, much better.”

DeLand (19-9), the No. 5 seed in the region, had won 10 of its previous 11 matches.

The Bulldogs’ sophomore setter, Alison Bierwagen, racked up 51 assists. Sophomore Ella Pringle had 16 kills in the loss.

Hagerty holds on

Five-setters are becoming common for Hagerty, and the Huskies know how to win the big matches.

For the second time in nine days, Hagerty (20-8) and Winter Park (21-8) went toe-to-toe in a 3-2 match, with the Huskies prevailing again on Saturday. This time it was 25-20, 25-23, 13-25, 24-26, 15-9.

Winter Park, playing at home, rallied from a 9-0 deficit in the fourth set to force a deciding fifth set. Hagerty, behind the play of outside hitters Brooke Stephens and Abby Mas, and opposite Jenness Orcutt, surged ahead 6-2 and held on for the win.

No. 3 seed Hagerty also beat No. 2 Winter Park 3-2 in the district final.

“Winter Park is such a good team,” Hagerty coach Juanita Hitt said. “My team came through and pulled it off at the end.”

Stephens had 26 kills. Brielle Mullen had 47 assists and Mayte Camacho 36 digs.

Winter Park junior Fallon Stewart had 19 kills, 13 digs and 2 aces.

Osceola, DP survive

Kissimmee Osceola — the No. 1 seed in 7A Region 2 — lost consecutive games and had to regroup in its 25-8, 25-19, 20-25, 18-25, 15-11 win against visiting Jupiter,

The Kowboys (25-4) trailed 11-9 in the fifth game before senior Kaitlyn Taylor smacked a kill and then served out the set.

Osceola will be home Wednesday against Dr. Phillips (18-10), which came from two sets down to beat Windermere in its semifinal.

“Momentum in volleyball is fickle,” Osceola coach Carrie Palmi said. “We got off to a great start but some mistakes and great plays by Jupiter switched that momentum and put us on our heels. We made some defensive adjustments and Kaitlyn really got aggressive with her serves at the end.”

Palmi’s ninth-grade daughter, Cate, led Osceola with 27 kills. Taylor had 7 ace serves and 11 kills. Sixth seed Dr. Phillips rallied from two sets down to win 22-25, 15-25, 25-20, 25-14, 15-5 at home against No. 7 Windermere (11-12). The Panthers lost the first point of the final game but then scored 10 in a row. Three of those were on ace serves by Kaylee Burt. The momentum shifted as DP’s senior middle blocker, Renata Arcay, came on strong with kills and blocks. Arcay had 14 kills, including the match winner.

“She knows how to go at it with fire,” said Panthers coach Emily Loftus. “She was able to make it happen and clearly the momentum followed.”

Windermere captain Reese Bury limped off the court with her team trailing in the fourth set and did not return.