Pensacola Catholic, Jay volleyball advance to regional finals

Pensacola Catholic volleyball prides itself on aggressive serving. Every day in practice they practice on hitting certain spots, throwing some float serves in and just making it difficult to get in system.

Fitting then that the Crusaders ended every set with an ace in a sweep of Wolfson (25-15, 25-21, 25-21) to advance to the Region 1-3A final for the second straight year.

“We work hard on our serves,” senior Brandi Lee Rhodes said. “We’re all aggressive servers.”

Pensacola Catholic (25-4) will face No. 3 South Walton (21-7) in the Region 1-3A final on Oct. 27 at 6 p.m. The Seahawks, who made the 4A state semifinals last year, won at Florida High in four sets (22-25, 25-21, 25-15, 25-19) to advance to the regional final. Catholic previously swept South Walton in the District 1-3A final on Oct. 17.

The serves were part of the Crusader’s typical solid all-around game, but also emerged at key moments too. Sophomore Ava Bradley‘s ace to close out the first set, which just hit the net, before dropping into the Wolfpack (20-7) side, was the cherry on top of a dominant opener.

Senior Paige Seuzeneau’s floater to end the second set marked the end of a set where Catholic started hot and then kept Wolfson at bay the rest of the way, getting some timely kills from sophomore middle Emi Trahan and senior setter Jemma Rispoli.

The third set, which Bradley finished with another ace to close out the match, saw the Crusaders use the service line to flip the set from Wolfson cruising on its way to a fourth to a Catholic sweep.

The Wolfpack jumped out to a 13-8 lead in the third set before Rispoli stepped to the service line. She started her run with an ace, then another droppedjust in bounds. She had another later in the set as part of an 8-0 run to put the Crusaders in front 16-13.

Wolfson responded with a 5-0 run of its own to take an 18-16 lead, but Catholic answered with a 3-0 run and never trailed again.

“It’s been great all year,” Crusaders head coach Clay Carrell said about his team’s response. “The best part about it is when we get down, there’s no pointing fingers, there’s nobody putting their head down, there’s nobody waiting for somebody, everybody is pulled together like who’s going to make the next play, let’s make the next play and that’s a really good thing for our team, to realize we’re never out of it.”

Since this was a rare Saturday match, Carrell had to tell his team to think about things as if it was a regular weekday match and where they would be in their routine, even if the gym was quickly broken down so everyone could go the Homecoming dance that night and it could be cleaned for the open house the next day. Tuesday will be back to normal against a familiar opponent with another Final Four on the line.

After some thought Catholic may have lucked into a Final Four berth last year, the Crusaders have been motivated to prove it wasn’t a fluke and know what it takes to get there. A fire that’s led to 25 wins and a belief that if they stay aggressive in hitting and serving to dictate the match, they’ll take care of business.

“We can’t get focused on who we’re playing,” Carrell said. “We have to stay focused on doing our job on our side of the court. That’s something we talk about all the time is take care of our side of the court, we’ll be just fine.

Jay returns to Rural Region 1 final

The top-ranked Lady Royals (25-2) are one win away from their goal of state after rolling through Chipley (25-11, 25-7, 25-13) and into the Rural Region 1 final. The Tigers (11-16) beat Jay in last year’s Rural Region 1 final before finishing as state runner-up.

To get to its first ever Final Four, Jay will have to beat Baker for a fourth time this season in the Rural Region 1 final on Oct. 27 at 6 p.m. The Lady Royals beat the Gators in 3-1 in Baker on Sept. 15 (25-16, 27-25, 23-25, 25-16) and swept them at Jay on Oct. 1 (25-23, 25-8, 25-17) and then again in Laurel Hill in the Rural District 1 final on Oct. 17 (25-15, 25-15, 25-20).

Baker beat Laurel Hill in four sets (25-15, 20-25, 25-13, 25-15) to advance to the regional final.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola Catholic, Jay volleyball advance to regional finals