Overcoming a sluggish first set, Celebration defeated Windermere 23-25, 25-23, 25-19, 25-15 Wednesday to the second round advance in the FHSAA Class boys volleyball championship.
The Storm – 19-9 and winners of six straight matches -- will host third-seeded Dr. Phillips (17-6) Friday.
Meanwhile the season ended for the county’s other state tournament qualifier. Tohopekaliga lost on the road to Horizon, 25-21, 25-17, 18-25, 22-25, 15-12. The Tigers season ends with a 17-10 record.
‘We got off to a slow start tonight,” Celebration coach Pedro Davila said. “We weren’t controlling the first contact and took advantage of that fact. We started to play a little better towards the end of the first game but ended up dropping that set.”
The Storm trailed for most of that first game, falling behind 15-10. They did manage to work their way back to forge ties at 21-21 and 22-22, but a kill by Alex Beckler and a block at the net by Zakary Siraj gave Windermere a 24-22 lead. Darion Graham got a kill to make it 24-23 but he would barely miss the line on a subsequent kill attempt and the Wolves held on for the point and first-game win.
Celebration used a 5-0 run early in game two to build an 8-4 lead and would have a comfortable advantage for most of the game until an 8-2 run Windermere tied the game at 23-23. The Storm used a ball handling error by Windermere and a spike down the line by Jahziel Rivera to close out the game and tie the match at a set each.
In game three, Celebration built a comfortable 16-11 lead early and cruised to a 25-19 win. The fourth and deciding set belonged to Storm and its outstanding senior Graham, as he dominated the game with nine kills and two aces. Graham, who came into the contest leading the Storm in kills (419), hitting percentage (.298) and aces (57), absolutely controlled the final game.
“It’s been that way for most of the year,” Davila said. “We try not to get Darion going too early in a match until we can see what their defense is doing. But once he gets established in a match be becomes a force.”
In addition to Graham, Julio Tova and Victor Binet had good offensive games for the Storm. Still it was the play of their defense that made the biggest difference in the match. Libero Keith Harrison made several spectacular digs to keep points alive, and Diego Rivera also made some key digs.
“We believe he (Harrison) is the best Libero in the state. Once he gets a ball up, we know we are going to have a chance for a successful attack," Davila said. "The fact that we have a second quality libero in Rivera, who is playing out of position but is a quality defensive player, certainly makes us a strong defensive team.”
Regional Notes: Baseball takes center stage today (Wednesday), as two county teams will be in action. At 7 p.m., district champion Osceola (15-9) will host Wellington (14-9) in regional quarterfinal game. The Kowboys, who defeated Harmony by a 3-2 count in the district final last Thursday, is the number four seed in Region 3. They will take on the winner of the #1 Park Vista vs. #8 Centennial game on Saturday. Osceola could host with a Centennial win.
Earning a number seven seed as an at-large team, Harmony (14-12) travels to second-seeded Jupiter (15-7) on Wednesday. A Longhorn win would put them on the road Saturday against the winner of the #3 Vero Beach vs. #6 Santaluces game.
