The Royal Palm Beach High School boys volleyball team’s bid for a perfect season wound up with a not so perfect ending as Orlando Freedom (30-2) rolled to a semifinal win over the previously undefeated Wildcats in the FHSAA state semifinals at Archbishop McCarthy on Saturday morning.
Royal Palm Beach (14-1), making its first-ever appearance in a state semifinal and its first trip past the regionals since 2003, fell in straight sets, 25-15, 25-19, 25-16 to the Freedom, who won the 2019 title. Last year’s championships were canceled due to COVID.
South Broward (15-8), also making its first appearance in the state semifinals after five trips to the state tournament ended in the quarterfinals, fell to two-time state champion Miami Southwest (26-5) in the other semifinal, 25-22, 25-17, 25-23.
“We made a lot of errors, a lot of unforced errors today,” said Royal Palm Beach coach Sal Ciano, whose school reached the state quarterfinals in 2003 before falling to Miami Coral Park, 11-15, 15-11, 15-8. “Freedom did not, and that’s why they came out on top.”
“They played pretty flawless volleyball for most of that match,” Ciano added. “We just couldn’t get it done today.”
Freedom jumped out to a commanding 17-6 lead in the first set before Royal Palm Beach went on a 7-1 run to pull to within 18-13. Freedom closed out the first set to finish with a 25-15 first set win.
Royal Palm Beach, which also lost in the first round play-in game in 2015 to Wellington, flexed its muscle to seize a 9-6 lead in the second set. The Wildcats grabbed a 15-10 lead before the Freedom closed out the set on a 15-4 run to win the second set 25-19.
The third set see-sawed back and forth before Royal Palm Beach was called for a double hit with the score tied at 11-11 and the Patriots closed out the match on a 14-5 run to advance to the final.
“We made too many unforced errors today – too many missed serves, too many missed opportunities,” Ciano said. “They gave us free balls that we hit out of bounds. We missed blocking assignments. Things we practice we didn’t it done.”
Royal Palm Beach junior Christian Kollar-Dye led the team with 15 kills. Kollar-Dye has played with a brace around his midsection after he fractured the L5 vertebrae in his lower back in September.
“Freedom has a great team,” Kollar-Dye said. “In 2019, the last time they had a state championship, Freedom won that. I hear their coach is pretty good and obviously, they have a great team.
“They came out swinging and they didn’t make any errors and that’s impressive,” said Kollar-Dye, who had 31 kills and eight sets in a state quarterfinal win over Park Vista on Friday night. “That’s why they won. They didn’t make any errors and they are a super solid team. They have two great setters and they do everything right.”
Senior Jason Gonzalez was second on the team with six kills, while senior setter Thinh Vo had a team-high 25 assists.
South Broward got a team-high 12 kills, six digs, and one block from junior Cameron Thorne in the defeat. Bulldogs junior Colton Bueter added six kills and 10 digs, while senior Oshane Farquharson had 15 assists.
South Broward coach Leo Jimenez said the team’s goal was to reach the final four this season and they accomplished it by defeating Miami in four games in the quarterfinals.
“Winning last night was just icing on the cake,” Jimenez said. “We knew we could do it since we played them (Miami) before and had a bad turnout. So, it was a chance to show ourselves and our potential.
“Today’s (semifinal) loss was for sure a hard loss,” Jimenez said. “Southwest played very well and served very aggressively. Our setting was not on point and we struggled and tried to adjust and run a 5-1 (formation) instead. But at the end of the day, we needed our sets to be on target and they were not just there. But overall, I’m happy with our accomplishments. We made it to the final four, which was our goal.”
Freedom rallied from a two-set deficit to defeat Southwest Miami, 3-2 (23-25, 19-25, 25-20, 25-18, 15-13) for the state championship.
