From time to time a semifinals district match places two teams that are capable of achieving great things. On Wednesday night one such marquee match up took place at the Ronald Regan gym in Doral. Top seeded Ferguson was to face a very talented and athletic Southwest team for the right to play in the District 15-6A Championship.
Ferguson would be facing a menacing front line with 5'11" Sr. Hanna Penna, 5'11" Sr. Steffany Roldan, 6'1" Jr. Donihue Caitlin and 5'11" Jr. Claudia Martin. Making matters worse, Ferguson's starting middle hitter, Sr. Danielle Pohl 6'0" would miss this match. Regardless of the outcome, a very talented team would be heading home; the other towards the district championship and into regionals.
The first set started extremely close as fans of each school cheered trying to out do one-another. After the score was tied at 6-6 Ferguson went on a run and never looked back wining 25-15, 25-17, 25-17.
``In my eyes, they are the best team not to advance,'' Shanower said of Southwest. ``They are a very hard-working, focused and tough team to beat, but my girls played their game, and our serving was the difference.''
Mackenzie Webster, a senior, led the way for the Falcons with 12 kills and 10 digs.
Fellow senior hitter Alexandra Beverly added 11 kills and seven digs, and Alexandra Walewski chipped in seven kills and 13 digs.
Ferguson now faces Lourdes in the District Championship match on Friday at 6:00PM in the Ronald Regan gym at Doral.
District 16-6A semifinals at Homestead:
For an experienced team like Palmetto, playoff time is when all of the concepts preached during the season come together. On Wednesday, their quest to return to the final four began as they soundly defeated Varela 25-14, 25-23, 25-14 in the opening round of the District 16-6A tournament over at Homestead High School. ``Tonight we played the best game of the season so far,'' Kim Latshaw said. Palmetto was a different team on Wednesday as the intense ball control and tipping drills gave way to a new wrinkle in the Panther attack. ``[Varela] prepared for us to come out hitting, but we were tipping and they weren't prepared for that,'' Latshaw said. Palmetto came out very patient and found the spaces where they were able to easily tip the ball to.
In the nightcap, top-seeded Killian started out rough against Coral Reef but were able to right the ship and win 22-25, 25-12, 25-11, 25-14. ``Coral Reef was playing like never before, and the girls were taken aback,'' Killian coach Clinton Reid said. ``I told the girls that they knew how to hit, they knew how to play, so all they had to do was show them.'' Jaclyn Lapointe was fundamental on the defense as she came up with 27 digs.-- JUAN ARANGO - Miami Herald.
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