By MEL SUITER
Hernando Sun Reporter
Photography by Alice Mary Herden
BROOKSVILLE, Fla. —- Keep the music playing, Nature Coast Tech High School volleyball team wants to keep on dancing!
Outside the gym the streets were busy with fire trucks speeding down the road answering the alarm for help. Inside the gym on the campus of Nature Coast Tech High School the temp was rising and so were the Sharks out on the court.
Nature Coast Tech High School is staying late at the party because the Sharks defeated Tarpon Springs High School, Tuesday night October 29 by the score of 3-0, to improve their overall record to 20-9.
The attack plan for the Sharks was to dominate at the net both defense and offense, control their serve, get as many points as possible and keep the tempo of the game at their pace.
Tarpon Springs made it to the second round of the Quarter Finals of the FHSAA by defeating LeBelle High School 3-1, and they also liked the music at this party.
Tarpon Springs played hard and did show the Sharks, that they were going to be a scrappy squad. Spongeres junior middle hitter Breanna Reinhard led her team with seven digs,16 kills and five points.
“They are definitely resilient being down in the third game they could’ve rolled over and died,” Tarpon Springs volleyball coach Patrick Sneed said. “They definitely showed some fight, Nature Coast was on tonight and we were not on our best game of the season.”
Sharks co-captain Madison Clark made her presence known with her thunderous hits. The defense was led by senior Sabrina Sessa and her ability to dig the ball before the ball hit the floor. Sophomore outside hitter Laura Sinsko had five digs, 11 kills for the Sharks.
Nature Coast Tech High School volleyball coach Emily Gore said that her team’s defense was pretty good against Tarpon Springs and the Sharks were ready for the game because of the hard work during practice.
Before the game, the Sharks were working at getting to free balls and were able to get some fine tuning on the defensive side of the net.
In the third game of the match, the Spongers tied the score at 20 but the extra work that the Sharks did on their defense paid off as the Sharks forced Tarpon Springs into errors.
With the win over the Spongers, the music started to play, the dancing began along with the screams of joy as the Sharks move forward in the Florida High School Athletic Association Class 4A Volleyball Tournament.
The next game for Nature Coast Tech High School will be Tuesday November 5, against Academy of the Holy Name in Tampa. The start of the match is scheduled for 7 p.m.
“It is the Elite Eight!” Gore said. “Not a lot of people thought that we would be here!”
Gore is expecting the hard work by the Sharks to continue and so they can keep on dancing all the way to Ft. Myers, Florida and to the 4A state of Florida Volleyball Championship game to bring home the trophy.
