Kowboys come from No. 3 seed to topple host Gateway for another championship
Osceola's Leah Nieves hits through a front line of Gateway's Gabriella Herrera (1) and Cristabella Santiago (3) in Thursday's win. (Photo/Taylor McFee)
While Osceola claimed its fifth consecutive Orange Belt Conference volleyball tournament title, it wasn't exactly "rinse, repeat, win".
Host Gateway played point-for-point with the Kowboys for most of Thursday's championship match, including 15 kills and three aces from freshman hitter Anaya Reyes, but Osceola pulled out the 28-26, 18-25, 25-20,
Senior West Virginia University signee Brooklyn Sippio, the lone returning starter from a senior-led group that reached the state semifinals last season, teamed with freshman sister Maddy to tally 34 kills, many keeping momentum squarely on the side of the now five-time defending champs.
"We're banged up, and it's the end of a long week," OHS Coach Carrie Palmi said, noting her Kowboys were 4-1 on Friday and Saturday in an event at Gamepoint in Orlando. "We may have sort of limped our way to this, so I'm proud of the girls.
"You could tell Brooklyn was hungry to win again, and Maddy really stepped up. We're still finding our feet a little bit as a team, so winning something like this can build a lot of confidence for us."
Osceola (12-5) held the largest lead of the first set at 16-12 before Gateway (11-2) ran off the next six and eight of the next 10 behind Reyes to take a 20-18 lead. But Brooklyn Sippio scored four of the next five points with three kills and a block to reach set point, and Natalya Turcios' block closed out the first set.
Reyes and senior Ivana Reyes took over the second set, turning a 14-14 tie into a 25-18 win that leveled the match, but Osceola never trailed in the third or fourth sets to take the tournament win from the No. 3 seed. The Kowboys jumped out to a 9-3 fourth-set lead, but Gateway scored the next six points to tie the score before another series of kills from the Sippios. Two Omaryz Ojeda aces wrapped around a Maddy kill closed out the match.
The Sippios said they'd talked about how important it was for Brooklyn to have an undefeated OBC career and for Maddy to start hers with a win.
"We knew we needed to step up, because we're still Osceola and teams scout us," Brooklyn said.
"We gave it our all and Brooklyn had said it was important to win again her senior year," Maddy said. "I wanted to win, I didn't want to go to a fifth set.:"
Earlier Thursday, St. Cloud (9-3) defeated Tohopekaliga in straight sets (25-15, 25-14, 25-22) to earn third place. Harmony topped Nova Lakes for fifth on Wednesday.
