The last time the Gainesville volleyball team won a state championship, current GHS coach Jerica Carter-Mitchell was on it.<\/p>\n
Now, 21 years later, she is taking a team with her two daughters to the final four as GHS punched its ticket for the first time since 2011.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew we had a good squad going into the season, and we know that last year it didn\u2019t end the way that we wanted to, especially the seniors and even our freshmen that were starting last year, they really felt that, and really, really wanted to get that back this year, and they did,\u201d said Jerica Carter-Mitchell.<\/p>\n
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On Wednesday night at The Purple Palace, in front of an energized crowd, the No. 2 seed Hurricanes swept No. 4 seed Legacy (Port St. Lucie), 25-5, 25-20, 25-20 in the FHSAA Class 5A-Region 2 Final.<\/p>\n
Photo by C.J. Gish Gainesville\u2019s Rowan Kage (4) with a hit against Legacy (Port St. Lucie) in the Class 5A Region 2 Final.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis whole week, this whole season, we\u2019ve been building up to it,\u201d said senior Rowan Kage. \u201cWe\u2019ve been talking every practice about getting better, growing as a team. Our team chemistry is off the chart this year, like we all just love to be around each other. It\u2019s just so fun to play with them and I\u2019m so excited that we get to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes (20-8) stormed out to a big lead in the opening set, thanks to an 11-0 run.<\/p>\n
Junior Jordyn Barnard served a pair of aces and sophomore Jacey Carter-Mitchell had consecutive blocks, forcing Legacy to call a timeout down 9-2.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just really executed our plan tonight, and that\u2019s really what has happened every time so far in the playoffs,\u201d Jerica Carter-Mitchell said. \u201cWe scouted, we made the adjustments in practice, and then they are executing on the court so we couldn\u2019t ask anything more. They played with lots of confidence tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the first of two runs in the opening set.<\/p>\n
Jacey Carter-Mitchell added a pair of kills and an ace by Kage led to a second Legacy timeout following an 18-4 advantage.<\/p>\n
The 7-0 run extended the lead to 21-4, and junior Whitney Kinsell added three service points for a 25-5 victory and a quick 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n
The visiting Lions (23-8) took a 14-10 lead in the second set, but the \u2018Canes answered with a 4-0 run. They took their first lead since 3-1 on a powerful kill by Kage that went off the face of a Legacy player for a 16-15 lead.<\/p>\n
Although the game would be tied again at 17 apiece on a kill by Lions\u2019 junior Sophia Spychalla, a kill by junior Kenzie Carter-Mitchell put GHS in front 18-17 and they never trailed again.<\/p>\n
Legacy led 17-16 in the third set, but following a GHS timeout, sophomore Jorryn Dye added a block, junior Jordyn Barnard had a kill, and Dye finished off a 3-0 run with a kill to give the Hurricanes a 19-17 lead.<\/p>\n
Photo by C.J. Gish Gainesville\u2019s Addyson Hauptman (2) surpassed 1,000 career digs against Legacy (Port St. Lucie) in the Class 5A Region 2 Final.<\/p>\n
Legacy called a timeout, but the Lions never evened the score, and Kenzie Carter-Mitchell\u2019s final kill of the night gave GHS a 25-20 win and a sweep to win the regional title.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels incredible,\u201d said senior libero\/defensive specialist Addy Hauptman. \u201cThis team has so much talent, and we kind of started off a little iffy at the beginning of the year, and I think we just really got ourselves together. And that\u2019s so important to me because me and Rowan have been on varsity since freshman year together, and this has been our goal all along, and to finally experience that senior year is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hauptman finished with 22 digs and reached a milestone with her 1,000th\u00a0career dig.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a big accomplishment for her,\u201d Jerica Carter-Mitchell said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been wanting it. We\u2019ve been counting it down, and she\u2019s actually close to 2,000 serve\/receive receptions as well\u2026 she\u2019s key for us back there. She\u2019s the leader of our defense. She\u2019s done awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
GHS will likely be the No. 3 seed and face No. 2 seed Archbishop McCarty (Fort Lauderdale) in the Class 5A state semifinals next Friday, Nov. 7, at Polk State College in Winter Haven (time TBA).<\/p>\n
Photo by C.J. Gish Gainesville\u2019s Charlotte Judge (10) with a set against Legacy (Port St. Lucie) in the Class 5A Region 2 Final.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am really happy that they reseed because based on the bracket, it looked like we were going to play (5A overall No. 1) Chiles (Tallahassee), so when they reseed it looks like we\u2019re going to be on the other side of the bracket, and we don\u2019t have to see them until the finals,\u201d Jerica Carter-Mitchell said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been set up the whole way really well. I mean, the fact that we\u2019re able to host and higher seeds got knocked out, so it\u2019s really set us up well, and they\u2019re setting us up well one more time for the final four, so I\u2019m hoping we can go as far as possible within the next two matches.\u201d<\/p>\n
2025 FHSAA Volleyball Regional Finals<\/p>\n
Area teams in\u00a0bold<\/p>\n
Wednesday, Oct. 29<\/p>\n
Class 4A-Region 2<\/p>\n
1 Merritt Island 3,\u00a02 Santa Fe (Alachua)\u00a00 \u2013 25-22, 25-23, 25-18 (Raiders finish the season at 20-10)<\/p>\n
Class 5A-Region 2<\/p>\n
2 Gainesville\u00a03, 4 Legacy (Port St. Lucie) 0 \u2013 25-5, 25-20, 25-20<\/p>\n
Photo by C.J. Gish Gainesville celebrates after defeating Legacy (Port St. Lucie) in the Class 5A Region 2 Final and advancing to the state semifinals for the first time since 2011.<\/p>\n
Photo by C.J. Gish Gainesville\u2019s Jordyn Barnard (7) with a hit against Legacy (Port St. Lucie) in the Class 5A Region 2 Final.<\/p>\n
Photo by C.J. Gish Gainesville\u2019s Jacey Carter-Mitchell (1) blocks a hit against Legacy (Port St. Lucie) in the Class 5A Region 2 Final.<\/p>\n
Photo by C.J. Gish Gainesville\u2019s Jorryn Dye (8) with a hit against Legacy (Port St. Lucie) in the Class 5A Region 2 Final.<\/p>\n
Photo by C.J. Gish Gainesville\u2019s Kenzie Carter-Mitchell (11) with a hit against Legacy (Port St. Lucie) in the Class 5A Region 2 Final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last time the Gainesville volleyball team won a state championship, current GHS coach Jerica Carter-Mitchell was on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-26132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}