By CHRIS BERNHARDT JR.
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BROOKSVILLE – The heat turned up into the 80s on Wednesday afternoon and Hernando found itself unexpectedly shorthanded for its beach volleyball match with Nature Coast.
But the Leopards shook off those dilemmas and kept on rolling through an unbeaten season with a 4-1 victory over the Sharks at Tom Varn Park.
“Some of them got a little sloppy here and there, but all in all they pulled together and did it,” Hernando head coach Erin Sittig said. “I had to do a bunch of changes. I had a girl out sick with the flu. So, I had to make some changes, some have never played together before. So, they pulled it out, they did pretty good.”
“… I think they did very well, coming together and working together since they’ve never been together. They literally were just told maybe half an hour before the game started.”
Senior Katie Williams, who would normally play with the No. 3 pairing, was the last-minute scratch that caused the upheaval in the No. 3-5 teams for the Leopards (6-0).
It hardly showed, in part because Hernando’s top two teams handled their business. In one of the first matches played on the two courts at Tom Varn, Jessa Sittig and Brooke Hart won at No. 2 over Adi Harmon and Ava Ferlita of Nature Coast (3-3) 21-13, 21-16.
“I think it went really good. Slow start, but after we took our technical timeout, we came back and got eight points in a row and ended up winning the game. Second match, it was kind of the same thing,” Hart said. “So we did pretty good, we finished strong. Extremely hot for sure, so very hard to play in. But we did pretty good.”
“We had a rough start, but I feel like after our timeout we definitely picked it up a lot and we had a lot of great saves and good serves,” Jessa Sittig said.
Emma Trinque and Lilly Mae Bates teamed for a 21-17, 23-21 victory over Talia Bateman and Shyla Fleming at No. 4 in the other opening match. Kaiya Ward and Azadee Mottahedeh won at No. 1 against Amanda Tirado and Addy Carpenter 21-13, 21-6 to lock up the overall win for Hernando.
“Me and my partner, we did a really good job together,” Ward said. “It was definitely a little challenging because it’s been very, very hot the past few days and you could tell we were all dehydrated. But overall, it went very well and so proud of how far we’ve come this season.
“… I’d say just staying in system (was the key). We were really rocky at the start, so it was a close game. And then we kind of just figured out that as long as I peel off the net at the right moment that I’ll be able to dig a ball and my partner can dig a ball, and then we’ll just set each other up and swing or hit cut shots.”
Katie Charlow and Charity Blevins won the most competitive match of the day, defeating Ashley Bretz and Jalena Hathorn in the No. 3 contest 21-14, 15-21, 15-13. The Sharks finally got their lone triumph at No. 5, with Gabby Hamann and Taylor Grant downing Ryleigh Ramsey and Paige Hill 22-20, 21-18.
“… I think just consistency (is needed). I think today was a tough day for the girls because of the heat. It’s starting to warm up, so getting more accustomed to that. We played a match yesterday, too. So it’s getting that conditioning in coming off of spring break now that the days are warming up and heat is a factor.”
Gore noted that the Sharks’ losses have come against strong opponents, including against The Villages (6-1) and
their first meeting with the Leopards last month, which Hernando won 3-2.
The Leopards, nearly halfway through the regular season, just want to keep up with their winning ways. It has been a continuation of the success Hernando had capturing a district title during the indoor season in the fall.
“We figure there’s a ton of seniors on both our indoor and our beach team, and we just want to go out with a bang, take home two district trophies,” said Ward, who signed with Division I Eastern Kentucky to play beach volleyball.
“Great partnership and we all mesh really well together with who we’re partnered with,” Jessa Sittig said. “Last year was our first year playing (beach). So then we got to see how the other schools play, and so this year we knew what to expect,” Hart said. “We also have new girls playing this year that also have experience with beach. I think that really helped us this year and I think we’re doing really good.”
Their coach pointed to the previous match prior to spring break on March 13, when the Leopards blanked Cambridge Christian 5-0 despite not knowing what to expect, as an indicator of how well the team is playing.
“The heart, the drive. A lot of them push through,” Coach Sittig said. “They come to practice every day, Monday through Thursday pretty much, sometimes we do Friday, and we just pull together.”
