The Nature Coast Sharks (2-2) defeated the Weeki Wachee Hornets (0-6) in four out of five sets at Sunwest Park on Thursday afternoon. In their first outing at the Hudson-based sand courts, the Sharks won all but the sets between the teams’ second squads.
Seniors Addisson Carpenter and Amanda Tirado led Nature Coast’s “ones” to a sweep over Weeki’s top pair. After some early back and forth in both matches, Head Coach Emily Gore’s senior duo cruised to double digit victories in the first two sets.
“Addy and Amanda do a great job together,” Coach Gore said. “They are definitely our studs.”
The Sharks jumped out to 5-0 and 5-1 leads early before Weeki Wachee battled back to make it 5-5 and 6-5 in those sets respectively. After the Green and Black tied it up in the opening match, a balanced effort by Coach Gore’s squad combined with some Weeki miscues led to a Sharks’ 8-3 scoring stretch heading into the intermission.
The Columbia Blue continued their pace in the second half and went on to win 21-11. The second match was more of the same.
After the Hornets’ early comeback, the Sharks scored 8 out of the next 10 points to take a daunting 14-7 advantage heading into the break. Weeki immediately followed this with a brief 3-1 stretch before 6 straight points ended the match 21-10 in favor of Nature Coast.
“[…] [Jalena Hathorn and Ashley Bretz] have been trying to get a good feel for each other,” Coach Gore said. “They are new to each other this year. One of them is new to the sport. They got their first win today, so they are pretty excited and feeling good about things. So, that was good to see.”
After starting the season with two losses, the Columbia Blue have turned things around and brought their record up to .500. The Green and Black are still looking to find their footing, to develop synergy, and nab their first win.
As Hornets’ Head Coach Taylor Miller noted, “It is about building that communication and bond […] I have a lot of young girls” on the team.
Injuries have played a part for the Green and Black as well. Coach Miller’s two seniors who played on Thursday have dealt with a rolled ankle (Reese Halter) and a shoulder injury (Jayden Aponte) this season.
Despite this, they were the only Hornets duo to emerge victorious. The pair is “working hard to rehab everything and take care of themselves for districts in April,” Coach Miller added. “I have a few girls I moved around to give them some experience and see how we would match up for the future. Everything is just in preparation for districts.”
The full results are below:
Pair 1: Nature Coast’s Amanda Tirado and Addisson Carpenter won 2-0
Pair 2: Weeki Wachee’s Reese Halter and Jayden Aponte won 2-0
Pair 3: Nature Coast’s Jalena Hathorn and Ashley Bretz won 2-0
Pair 4: Nature Coast’s Shyla Fleming Talia Bateman won 2-0
Pair 5: Nature Coast’s Gabby Hamann and Taylor Grant won 2-0
Both teams will continue work on building depth and familiarity as they head towards the postseason. Weeki Wachee will face off against the Hernando Leopards next while the victorious Sharks will take on the Eagles later this month.
“We are really getting there,” said Coach Gore. “We have come a long way, I think, in the last couple weeks.”
