Going into Friday’s boys volleyball region final, state No. 1 Winter Park had only lost two sets all season while winning all 26 of its matches.
None of those two sets was against Metro Conference rival Freedom, which lost twice to the Wildcats.
But the host Patriots are no slouch, ranked No. 4 in the state going into the match with their only two losses this season against their opponent. Oh, and Freedom was also the defending state champ since last year’s state tournament was canceled due to COVID-19.
And the Patriots are still the defending state champs. After losing the first set, Freedom (27-2) played near-flawless team volleyball in winning the next three sets for a 21-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-22 victory over the Wildcats (26-1), resulting in a joyous storming of the court from Freedom students.
It’s the third trip to the state final four in the last four years for the Patriots and 2019 American Volleyball Coaches Association national coach of the year Gina McFerren.
“Everyone did their part tonight,” McFerren said, wiping tears of joy from her eyes. “We blocked when we needed to [including a huge block kill by Andres Gomez in the third set], passed when we needed to, set when we needed to, served well when we needed to [including three aces from Austin Davis in the second set to get the Patriots back into the match].
“This was truly a team effort.”
It also took lots of practice the last several days focused on two aspects of Winter Park’s dominant offense.
“We were able to handle their serving,” McFerren said. “We practiced for two weeks on receiving jump serves. We also attacked their setter to take them out of their game.”
The Patriots will play Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons (19-6) in a state quarterfinal on Friday afternoon. That match starts at 1:30 p.m. at Archbishop McCarthy in Broward County. The state semifinal and championship matches will be held at the same site on Saturday, May 15.
Freedom was state champ in 2019 before the COVID-19 outbreak halted the 2020 spring sports season in Florida.
This story was first published at OrlandoSentinel.com. Varsity Content Editor Buddy Collings can be reached by email at bcollings@orlandosentinel.com.
