Winter Park, Lake Howell, Celebration on the way to state
Cole Colado had 18 kills and 3 blocks and Jacob Little-Phillips delivered 48 assists Tuesday to propel defending state champion Winter Park past Timber Creek by scores of 25-22, 26-24, 19-25, 25-18 in the Region 2 boys volleyball final.
The homecourt victory sends the Wildcats (26-3) back to the FHSAA state tournament, which will be played this weekend at Polk State College in Winter Haven.
They will be joined by Region 1 champion Lake Howell (27-2), which had to rebound after losing the third and fourth sets to beat visiting Bartram Trail (21-4) by scores of 25-17, 25-22, 17-25, 22-25, 15-4.
Celebration also is state-bound after defeating visiting Horizon (17-10) by scores of 26-24, 25-15, 29-27 in the Region 3 final. Senior Darion Graham had 26 kills for the Storm, including 12 in the final set.
Winter Park is the state tournament No. 2 seed behind Miami Southwest (25-2) and will play No. 7 Celebration (21-9) on Friday at 4 p.m., according to the FHSAA bracket updated Tuesday night. Those teams met at Winter Park, with the Wildcats winning in four sets.
Lake Howell is the sixth seed and will play No. 3 Cardinal Gibbons (24-3) of Fort Lauderdale at 6 p.m. Friday. State semifinals are Saturday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., setting up a 7 p.m. title match.
Colado said he and his brother, Dickson, have played alongside Little-Phillips and Stewart in the
Winter Park Volleyball Club for six years.
“It’s a little deeper than a senior-sophomore connection at Winter Park,” said Cole, one of four Wildcats with double-figure kills on Tuesday. “It’s more like a family bond, because we’ve known each other for so long. Everyone on the team is amazing. We’re fortunate to have people at all seven positions and our subs who do a fantastic job.”
Senior Ketcher Stewart added 15 kills, Dickson Colado had 13 and sophomore Mason Barberree contributed 12. Cole and Dickson are senior triplets with sister Merrell.
Winter Park coach Jesse Day talked before the match about the persistence Timber Creek (20-3) displayed all season. That showed again in the region final.
The Wildcats took the first two sets but were challenged every step of the way. The Wolves took a 24-23 second set on a kill by Gabriel Correia to go up 24-23. But Barberree bookended a fourpoint Winter Park run with kills, and Brock Ramos had an ace to give the Wildcats a 26-24 win.
Benjamin Herrington, who had a team-high 14 kills for Timber Creek, had four in a row to stake the Wolves to a 21-16 lead in Game 3. He had a block and another kill before Ricardo Dos Santos closed the set with a kill. Dos Santos finished with 11 kills and Correia had 10.