Bizarre officiating call mars tiebreaking fifth set against Tampa Plant
Finality set in on a decorated class of senior players for the Osceola High girls volleyball team Thursday at the Class 7A state tournament.
Despite taking the first set and an early lead in the second against Tampa Plant (19-8), the Kowboys (26-5) fell, 25-21, 22-25, 16-25, 25-22, 10-15 in the semifinals at Polk State College in Winter Haven.
It was the third time in the last four years the Kowboys reached the state tournament, with a semifinal loss each trip. With a lineup heavy on talented, college-bound seniors and a four-set win over Plant already notched in the regular season, most thought this would be the year OHS would finally reach a title game, and have a shot to win it.
But by Thursday night, all that was left was disappointment.
"Our seniors are pretty devastated," Coach Carrie Palmi said. "It was a pretty disappointing way for the season to culminate for us."
Three of those seniors, Sophie Spivey (10 kills), Jordin Southall (19) and Cate Palmi (26, to reach 2,000 for her career) combined for all but 3 of Osceola's kills, as OHS won the first set and took a 10-6 lead in the second set. They appeared bound for the first state semifinal win in school history.
"There were a lot of nerves in that first set but we closed it out," Carrie Palmi said. "The second and third sets happened so fast, I burned through all my time outs to do what I could."
It looked grim in the fourth set, as the Kowboys trailed 21-18 and on the brink of elimination.
"I called my last time out again and told the girls, 'It's on you.' They showed the heart I knew they had and played some scrappy volleyball (they won the next five points to assume control), and I really thought the momentum was ours and we'd go win the fifth set."
With the season and hopes of a state title on the line, an officiating quirk early in the tiebreaker set changed the tide of the set, match and tournament for the the Kowboys.
At 1-1, Cate Palmi put down a kill for an Osceola point, which would have ... should have ... sent her to the back row to serve. But the officials judged that team members from the bench jumped onto the court in celebration, resulting in a red-card offense to the bench that reversed the point and gave serve to Plant.
"It made no sense," Carrie Palmi said matter-of-factly after the match. "I asked an official and he told me the (Plant) coaching staff had said our team came off the bench (earlier in the match), and while he said he didn't see it, he also issued the red card. When I asked where the warning and yellow card was in the book, he said he'd already warned us."
She went on to say the officials also said Cate's service rotation "never happened" and that Osceola would be in its next rotation on its next serve, so with Osceola's girls not really sure what rotation they were in, they got down 5-1 in the set, and never recovered.
"I still maintain what he said wasn't a warning, just him telling me what he was told," Coach Palmi said. "It just felt like a cruel way to rule in the deciding set of a state semifinal."
Junior Brooklyn Sippio had six blocks and sophomore libero Priscilla Rada had 22 digs in a match that Palmi expected to be close and tight between the No. 5 and No. 8 ranked teams in all of Florida.
"It was great volleyball, with some incredible volleys," she said.
Plant advances to take on Winter Park, the No. 1 team in the state across all classes and the defending 7A state champs, in Saturday's title game at 1 p.m. The Wildcats (30-1) easily dispatched Doral Academy in three sets in their semifinal.
