Winter Park boys volleyball undefeated since losing 2020 title chance to pandemic
Lake Nona’s girls water polo wins 2021 FHSAA state championship
A year after Winter Park’s unbeaten boys volleyball team had its state-championship hopes squashed when schools closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wildcats are right back to their winning ways.
Winter Park is 16-0 going into a Tuesday night matchup against a 21-1 Freedom team.
“We knew from Day 1 in tryouts pretty much what was in front of us this season,” Winter Park coach Jesse Day said Monday. “We knew the great opportunity our [five] seniors from last year lost. I truly believe we could have won the state title.”
He’s every bit as confident this 2021 team can master the playoffs, which begin next week. The Wildcats have yet to lose a set this season with a rotation led by junior outside hitter and setter Ryan Peluso, who has committed to play collegiately for Long Beach State, which won NCAA championships in 2018 and 2019.
Two standout seniors, Randy Adorno and Daniel Beacham, are joined by juniors Andrew Webb and Dylan Clunan in a rotation that includes three 10th-graders: Ketcher Stewart and twins Dickson Colado and Cole Colado.
The Wildcats, state No. 1 in MaxPreps power ratings, have breezed through the regular season thus far. Their only close match was a 25-21, 25-23 win over fourth-ranked Freedom in the championship game of the Orlando Classic two weeks ago.
But the final week of the regular season will definitely be a test. After Tuesday’s rematch with Freedom, the Wildcats will play Wednesday night at Bishop Moore, which was 17-1 entering this week. Winter Park then will participate in this weekend’s Florida Top 10 tournament at Lake Brantley. In that Friday-Saturday round-robin tournament, Winter Park is scheduled to play five times and face second-ranked Miami Columbus and third-ranked Tampa Bay Heat.
“It’s a great opportunity to gauge where we are going into the most important part of the season,”
Day said of the tournament. “We haven’t been able to play most of the really top teams due to the [COVID-19] travel restrictions.”
Heavy hitters: Eustis (17-1), No. 1 in the MaxPreps Class 4A softball rankings, plays at No. 6 Class 7A Lake Brantley on Tuesday night at 7.
The Eustis Panthers are batting .373 as a team with 18 home runs and an average of 8.4 runs per game.
Senior Isabella Andujar is batting .458 with 11 extra base hits. Jensen Luke, a ninth-grader, is batting .417 with 11 extra base hits and a team-best 29 RBI. Dyani McKinley, a junior, is batting .444 and leads Eustis with 24 runs scored.
Eustis has won 10 in a row since losing 5-4 at Winter Springs March 11. The Bears (15-7), ranked fourth in 6A, won that game with a run in the bottom of the seventh.
Lake Brantley had a 16-5 record going into a Monday game against Apopka (18-4).
Water polo winners: Lake Nona’s girls water polo state championship victory Saturday made veteran Lions coach Alex Bennett the first
coach in the sport to win FHSAA finals for two different schools.
Bennett won three girls championships and one boys title at Miami Gulliver Prep before coming to Lake Nona to launch the Lions program 12 years ago.
Lake Nona, which finished an 18-0 season with its 12-6 win against top-ranked Gulliver in Miami, became just the third team outside South Florida to win an FHSAA water polo state championship. Olympia had the first two on that list, with its girls winning a 2017 title and its boys team prevailing in 2018.
Lake Nona is due to return four of its five leading scorers.
Tennis time: Weather permitting after a wet Monday, the state tennis playoffs will continue Tuesday with boys and girls region semifinal matches. Most will be played on campus shortly after the school day ends.
Winners are scheduled to advance to region finals Thursday:
Girls matches Class 4A
West Orange at Lake Mary Oviedo at Winter Park Lake Nona at Olympia, 9 a.m.
Boone at Vero Beach
Class 3A
Dade City Pasco at Edgewater East River at Lakeland
Class 2A
Merritt Island at Bishop Moore Lake Highland Prep at Satellite Class 1A
Cornerstone Charter at Windermere Prep
Seffner Christian at The First Academy
Boys matches
Class 4A
West Orange at Seminole Hagerty at Winter Park Vero Beach at Olympia, 3 p.m. Freedom at Lake Nona
Class 3A
Dade City Pasco at Edgewater East River at Lakeland
Class 2A
Titusville at Lake Highland Prep Bishop Moore at Satellite Class 1A
Circle Christian at Windermere Prep
All Saints at Trinity Prep