In Carrie Palmi’s coaching career, Osceola has produced some outstanding volleyball teams with multiple district championships and regional appearances. About the only thing missing from her resume was a trip to the Final Four.
You can now check that one off the list.
Osceola (26-4) was absolutely dominant Wednesday, dispatching Dr. Phillips in straight sets (25-18, 25-15, 25-18) in winning the Class 7A, Region 2 Championship. The win sends the Lady Kowboys into a state semifinal match with Hagerty (20-8), a four-set winner over Lake Brantley (26-28, 25-23, 25-23, 26-16).
As a No. 1 seed, Osceola will host the state semifinal game on Saturday (Time TBA) with the winner of that game facing the winner of Venice vs. Boca Raton match on Nov. 12 at Polk State College in Winter Haven for the 7A State Championship.
“This has been an amazing team and an amazing run,” Osceola coach Carrie Palmi said of her team. “Tonight we played tremendous defense, followed our game plan, and kept our composure when things started slipping away. Even in the third set when they rallied, we were able to stop their run and take control of the game.”
Osceola has had many successful teams in the past, but after regional final losses to Manatee in 2015 and Lake Nona in 2020, they finally have taken the next step to the Final Four and were able to do so in dominating fashion. They did it with an attack game that featured 23 kills from Cate Palmi and eight from Kaitlyn Taylor. They did it with a defense that featured 27 digs from Eimy Negron. And they did it with an offense that was fueled by 28 assists from Alex Liggeri.
In short, they did it with a total team effort that put the foot on the gas and never let up in dominating the Panthers (18-11), who were making their first regional final appearance.
“Our defense was fantastic tonight. We spent a lot of time studying their game films and finding the holes in their defense and we were able to exploit those holes. We did a great job of attacking their weak side and keeping momentum – especially in the first two sets,” Palmi said.
The Lady Kowboys could not have gotten off to a better start in the match. After falling behind 10-11, Osceola went on an 8-2 run to take an 18-13 lead. From there they built the lead to 20-15 and used three straight kills at the end of the game for a 25-18 win.
It was more of the same in Game 2. Osceola build leads of 4-1, 15-8 and 21-11 and were never challenged as they cruised to a 10-point win in the second set. Palmi had seven kills and an ace in that game.
Although Dr. Phillips fell behind 4-0 to start the third set, they would fight back to try to make it a contest. When Osceola was whistled for two straight net violations and a ball-handling error, the Panthers tied the set 16-16 and they would take the lead a few minutes later at 18-17 on another net violation by the Kowboys.
But Osceola would quickly dash any hopes of a Panthers rally. Freshman Sophia Spivey tied it on a thunderous cross court spike for a side out. Dari Bravo would then hold serve for seven straight points as OHS game on an 8-0 run. Spivey would spur the run with a big block at the net for a point, Bravo would get an ace and two attack errors by Dr. Phillips kept the rally alive.
“Momentum is everything in volleyball and I was afraid they were starting to take that away from us in the third set. We made some mistakes, but give them some credit too, they started to get into a groove and attack some holes in our defense,” Palmi said. “We called a timeout and made some adjustments and were able to take control back.”
Palmi added that despite getting over the regional final hump, her team is far from satisfied. “This team has worked hard all season is certainly hungry. We will enjoy this win for a moment or two and get back to work.”
