Leopards Fall to Hurricanes in Regional

On Wednesday evening, the Hernando Leopards (18-4) fell to the Mount Dora Hurricanes (14-5) in four sets in the regional quarterfinal round of the state championships at the Leopards Den. The Purple and Gold started the night out hot as they blasted the visitors in set one, but the final three sets would see the Hurricanes turn the tables on the home team. Hernando Head Coach Robin Bailey discussed how this happened after the game.

“They started blocking and hitting,” Coach Bailey said. “I know our blocks weren’t up to where they used to be. For some reason, we weren’t getting it. They had some heck of a hitters.”

It was a surprising flip of the script after the initial frame as Hernando easily bested Mount Dora to the tune of a 25-12 shellacking. Senior Kaiya Ward made play-after-play at the net as she was responsible for 10 points enroute to a 21 kill, 3 block, and 1 ace night. Senior Charity Blevins (4 kills, 2 aces) would score the winning point with an ace.

It would not be enough, as Mount Dora would come out with a purpose in the second period. With the score tied 6-all, 8 of the next 9 points were scored by the visitors. Hernando would claw their way back to a 3-point deficit, but a quartet of Hurricanes put the set away with Senior Sydney Guthrie recording the final two points on a block and kill.

The penultimate period was more tightly contested throughout, though, until the teams were deadlocked, 18-18. Then, 7 of the final 10 points scored would go Mount Dora’s way with Guthrie again scoring her team’s final pair of points to take the set 25-21.

Down two sets to one, Hernando would give Mount Dora their best shot besides the first. No team led by more than three the entire way, there were several lead changes, and even more ties throughout the fourth. However, they would fall just short of forcing a fifth foreshortened frame as they lost 25-23.

Though the Hurricanes were certainly the better team that night, there was some confusion amongst the crowd and coaches regarding the frequency of calls on certain types of violations. Various penalties such as double hits and carries can sometimes be called more stringently by officials, but it can be jarring for a squad that is not used to such calls.

“So, that’s one of the things I’ve always said,” Coach Bailey noted. “There’s nothing against the referees here. It’s just when they don’t call it straight during the season, then we get here, and they start calling things that maybe we’ve done before. That does hurt […] but it’s part of it.”

Regardless, the Hurricanes prevailed, and Hernando’s strong season ends with regionals. Despite the youth on her squad, Coach Bailey is proud of the fight in her team. “I don’t think they totally gave up,” the head coach said.

“We have some young girls. I don’t know if the game got too fast, but they really tried. That’s all you could do.”  One such player, Sophomore Katie Charlow, exemplified this fight by recording eight kills, three blocks, and one ace on the evening. Coach Bailey and company will hope for this experience to translate on the court moving forward.