By Ken Jackson
Sports Writer

Like last year, the Harmony Longhorns’ volleyball season ended with a four-game loss to Ocala Vanguard in the Class 4A regional semifinals.

Despite winning the first game, the Longhorns (25-3) couldn’t solve the Knights (22-8), who won 14-25, 25-21, 25-21, 28-26.

Vanguard will play Nature Coast in the Region 2 final tonight. The Knights played better over the course of the four games, said Harmony Coach Eric Trowbridge.

“In Game One, we executed. In Game Two, they started making plays and got us into a hole too big to climb out of against them,” he said.

Senior Robin Janney led the offense with 14 kills. Fellow senior Tori Keelean had 13 digs. Sophomore setter Genesis Viera tallied 37 assists, but it didn’t matter as the team shared deep disappointment after the game.

“This was not the goal. They bought into the idea of ending the season in Lakeland (at the state tournament),” Trowbridge said. “It was taken away and they feel it.”

A packed, partisan gym likely didn’t see the four-game Knight win coming during the first game, when led by the hitting of Janney and Alicia Palm (11 kills, 4 blocks) the Longhorns went on a 10-1 run to take a lead that stretched to 19-7.

After that, Vanguard unleashed the front line of Florida-bound hitter Holly Pole (“The girl that singlehandedly beat us last year,” Trowbridge said.) and sophomore McKenna Foster, who had 19 kills, as Harmony’s defense braced for Pole’s offense.

Of Pole’s 18 kills, the biggest came at the end of the second and third games, when Vanguard made 1- and 2-point leads hold up.

The teams passed the lead back and forth in the fourth game, thanks late to the blocking of Palm and Nia Frederick for the Longhorns, but after tying the final game at 26-26, the home team couldn’t find the points to extend the match.

Harmony will likely be a factor again next year as four starters return, but that’s no consolation to Trowbridge.

“This hurts for me because Tori and Robin were part of the first group when I got here, and they got the program here,” he said. “What feels better is that we’ve got a great group returning.”

Viera and defensive specialist Kendall Pollock are sophomores, and Palm and Frederick are juniors, as is Sammy Feliu, injured shortly before the district tournament.