Harmony will host semifinal Tuesday

By Ken Jackson
Sports Writer

The Harmony Longhorns volleyball team had some drama in store, so naturally they saved it for the win-or-go-home portion of the schedule.

The 4A District 6 champions dominated Tuesday’s Region 2 quarterfinal playoff match early, but they watched as Gainesville Eastside stormed back into the match. But host Harmony turned back into champions late, winning the match 25-15, 25-16, 20-25, 19-25, 15-7.

The Longhorns (25-2), with that cardiac moment behind them, will host 4A-7 champions Ocala Vanguard in Tuesday’s regional semifinal at 7 p.m.

The Longhorns attack was led up front by senior Robin Janney (19 kills) and juniors Marie Gilbert (12) and Alicia Palm (9 kills, 5 blocks).

Gilbert said that she was confident that her team, which hasn’t been seriously pushed in a match since last month’s Orlando Volleyball Academy Dig Pink tournament, would find a way to rally for the deciding game.

“In the fifth game our emotions were high and we knew we needed that,” she said. “They showed us a challenge, we knew at this point nobody just sends anyone home in three (games). We’re a strong team and we play for each other.”

The Longhorns dominated the first two games, stomping out to big leads (14-7 in the first game, 19-9 in the second) thanks to points from their front line of Janney, Gilbert and Palm. Libero Tori Keelean and right hitter started the rallies with digs from the back line, and setter Genesis Viera distributed the ball with passes that kept the Rams (17-9) guessing.

Facing elimination, Eastside became pesky in the third game, and Harmony couldn’t shake it. HHS Coach Eric Trowbridge said that while his team essentially gave the third game away, the visiting Rams played like a team fighting to survive and took the fourth game, when shots that earlier in the night fell in for points for the Longhorns started going wide or harmlessly at Rams defenders.

“We fully expected a battle, but we made 44 unforced errors,” he said. “There are no fluke teams at this point, so we knew it wouldn’t be as easy as it was in the first game.”

Eastside secured the match momentum by winning eight of the final nine points in the fourth game.

Trowbridge had a heart-to-heart with his players entering the fifth game, volleyball’s answer to NASCAR’s green-white-checkered flag finish.

“I told my seniors (Keelean and Janney) not to let it be the last 15 points they’d play, and it wouldn’t be if we executed like we did in the first game and most of the second,” he said. “Everybody just rallied around each other.”

Janney, Gilbert and Palm hit for four of the game’s first five points. Viera kept setting to Janney, the hot hand, who had a pair of kills during a 6-0 run, and after Nia Frederick blocked a ball at the net to the floor Harmony led 12-5 and sensed victory.

Janney, who had five kills in the deciding game, put the match away with one final hit through the Eastside blocking wall.

“We were in this position last year,” said Trowbridge, referring to last year’s regional quarterfinal win, the school’s first. It also required a fifth-game win. “Momentum is everything in one of these matches.”

The Longhorns will need to keep that ‘Mo’ on the go on Tuesday against an Ocala Vanguard team that dispatched Eustis in four games Tuesday week.

“They are a very solid team with a superstar outside hitter (Holly Pole) who has signed with the University of Florida. She beat us by herself last year,” Trowbridge said. “They will be prepared well for us, just as we will for them. It all boils down to execution and handling the emotions.”

Also on Tuesday, Gateway, the 6A District 6 runner-up, was making back-to-back appearances in the regional playoff for the first time but lost in three games to Olympia, 25-12, 25-10, 25-23.

The Panthers were 16-13 under first-year coach Julie Bavin.