Leopards Pounce Over Hornets in Semifinal

BROOKSVILLE — The Leopards are finals bound! On Wednesday, Hernando (17-3, 6-1 District) took down the Weeki Wachee Hornets (8-11, 3-5 District) in four sets in the 4A District 8 semifinals.

The Purple and Gold not only hosted the event, but they owned the number one seed and were coming of a bye. They came in as the favorites and they played like it, but the Green and Black showed up with a lot of heart. Leopards Head Coach Robin Bailey told her team as much after the first set.

“I just said that they’re hyped up,” stated Coach Bailey. “You can understand Weeki Wachee wanted to beat us. That’s understandable. They were way more hyped than we were. So, they needed to bring it. This is our house, and it was time for us to win.”

The Hornets would jump out to a 7-2 lead early and later extended that to a 23-15 advantage before hanging on for the 31-29 victory. This was thanks in large part to the heroics of OH/MH Marlee Schumacher. The 6’4” sophomore was responsible for a staggering 12 points (9 kills, 2 blocks) in the first frame alone.

Both teams’ fortunes flipped in a hurry going into set two. Throughout the next set and much of the rest of the match, Hernando dominated as Weeki was unable to prioritize their sensational sophomore.

Why was that? Well, Hernando has great players, too. Namely, Senior OH Kaiya Ward was a key piece of the Leopards’ finals clinching performance. “I think Kaiya is the leader of the team,” said Coach Bailey. “She is our captain. Her energy is high, and they talk to each other and communicate. She brings them all together.”

Across the final three frames, the senior outside hitter scored 22 points (2^nd – 7, 3^rd – 7, 4^th – 8), with the vast majority being of the kill variety. She even blasted the winning kill in every victorious set including the final pair of points that sent the Hornets home.

Sets two and four resulted in comfortable, identical 25-14 wins, while the penultimate period saw Coach Bailey’s squad dig themselves into a deep hole early before gutting out a 26-24 win. Down 14-5 in set three, the next seven points came largely from Ward (4) and Weeki miscues (2). With that, they were back in the game. Sophomore MH/OH Cordelia Blevins contributed a crucial 5 points in this set to help Hernando avoid a fifth frame.

Moving forward into the championship round, Coach Bailey wants to see her team continue to improve upon communication when down on the scoreboard. “Really, I feel like our problem is when we get down, we stop communicating,” she noted.

Hernando’s coach wants to see the team stay together when they take on Nature Coast Tech on Thursday. The Columbia Blue and Black downed the two seed Citrus Hurricanes in the other semifinal match directly after Hernando’s victory on Wednesday. The Leopards will advance to the all-county district final against the Sharks at 6:30 pm.