Panthers, Kowboys in action Saturday in Region 5A-2 semifinals
Gateway and Osceola remain on a course to mee in the Region 5A-2 finals Wednesday after each won regional quarterfinal volleyball playoffs last night.
Freshman Anaya Reyes recorded 24 kills to lead the Gateway Panthers to a 25-15, 17-25, 25-15, 25-20 four-set win over Winter Springs. The Panthers (21-3) will host Lake Minneola in Saturday’s semifinals at 2 p.m.
And Osceola (22-6) made quick work of Melbourne, 25-14, 25-12, 25-12 to move on to a Saturday matchup with Viera (19-9).
Should they both win, they’ll meet Wednesday night at Osceola for a place in the Class 5A Final Four tournament.
The Panthers got off to a hot start in their match and were comfortably ahead in the first set until a Bears rally cut the gap to 17-15. But after a point on a side out, freshman Sofia Brillon-Collazo served out eight straight points to give the Panthers the set. In that run, Brillon-Collazo had two aces and Reyes had three of her six kills.
The Bears took advantage of several attack and ball handling errors to cruise to a 25-17 second set win and knot the match at a set each, but Gateway dominated the third with a 9-4 run at the start of the set and 5-0 streak midway through.
Winter Springs appeared poised to send the contest to a fifth set and jumped out to an 11-6 lead in the fourth. But a 7-3 run by the Panthers cut the lead to one before Reyes tied it with a thunderous spike and a ball-handling error by the Bears gave Gateway its first lead of the set at 17-16. A three-point service run extended the advantage to 20-16 and Panthers outscored the Bears down stretch for the 25-20 win.
“Although they were seeded seventh, I knew they had played a tough schedule this year and had some talent, so we knew it was going to be a challenge tonight,” Gateway coach Heidi Lizardi said of the Bears, who dropped to 13-15. “But our girls have played a lot of volleyball together and understand what it takes to slow down the momentum of the other team. When we fell behind in the fourth set, we kept our poise and chipped away at them.”
Collazo’s 18 kills went with her two aces. Ivana Reyes added 10 kills and an ace and Cristabella Santiago added four kills.
Lake Minneola will be a rematch of an Oct. 13 district semifinal match won by Gateway, 3-2.
Osceola, trying to get to the state tournament for the fourth time in five years, got 15 kills and three blocks from Brookyln Sippio, 13 and 11 digs each from Sroaya Jean and Leah Nieves, 20 assists and five aces from Natalya Turcios and eight kills and three blocks from Kimora Richardson.
“It was a good match, we were able to use a balanced attack and got contributions from a lot of players,” OHS Coach Carrie Palmi said. “It was the first time in a win-or-go-home spot for some of these girls and they responded well.”
She said a similar effort will be needed Saturday.
“I knew coming in that they’d be a dangerous team,” Palmi said.
