St. Thomas Aquinas volleyball joins Florida’s ‘elite’

By Lynn Ramsey - Florida Catholic

OCALA | To win one volleyball championship is huge. To win three in a row puts a team into the elite programs.

Brook Bauer had 11 kills and two blocks to help St. Thomas Aquinas enter that elite class by beating Tampa Plant 25-17, 25-21, 25-21 in the Class 8A state championship match at West Port High School Nov. 12.

Aquinas (30-2, ranked No. 14 in the USA Today/American Volleyball Coaches Association national poll) became the 15th school to win three titles in a row. Several teams have multiple stretches of three in a row, including Cardinal Gibbons’ two stretches of five in a row and one of six in a row. Boca Raton Olympic Heights owns the record with seven in a row from 1996-2002.

Aquinas became the 10th team in state history to win five titles, which added to the Archdiocese of Miami volleyball legacy.Cardinal Gibbons has the state record with 19, but Msgr. Edward Pace, St. Brendan and former archdiocesan school Assumption Academy also have state titles.

Motivated foe

To add to the legacy, the Raiders had to fend off a motivated Plant (28-4) team they had beaten in the 2015 title match. The Panthers stood up to Aquinas serve for serve, block through block.

“We anticipated they were going to fight, they were going to push,” said Aquinas coach Lisa Zielinski. “They weren’t going to give up. We wanted to push more.”

First, both teams had to adjust to a tightly officiated match. Both their setters suffered multiple ball-handling errors, and their blockers sustained multiple into-the-net calls.

Plant coach Margeaux Sinibaldi was frustrated for both teams. “It’s hard to adjust. When you get to a point when you’re scared to do your job, you have to pull through it,” she said. “You have to get better. It’s part of life. Not everything will go smoothly. It wasn’t just doubles. It was calls at inopportune times, like a pretty good rally.”

Aqinas setter Derry Costigan, who had a match-high 18 assists, said that she and Kelsey O’Loughlin (10 assists) would adapt by going back to basics when setting, simplifying the motion.

Once the Raiders figured it out, they turned Bauer, Allison Marble and Jada Gardner loose on the attack. They took advantage of strong passing and setting that kept the blockers guessing.

Libero Paula Cerame used strong serving to help the Raiders rally from 15-13 down in the first game. By the time she was done serving, the Raiders led 19-15 and never trailed the rest of the first game.

Plant began to adjust in the second game. Lexie Atlas had three blocks during a four-point run that brought the Panthers into a 20-20 tie. But O’Loughlin set Bauer, Jada Gardner and Amelia McCrory for kills to end Game 2.

Kaylie Butts, who had 14 kills and three blocks for the Panthers, ignited a 4-1 run at the start of the third game. The Raiders then started mixing it up, using tips and quick sets to overcome an aggressive Plant block and tie it 6-6.

Both teams traded points until Emma Dixon and Allison Marble combined on two blocks to put the Raiders up 11-10. Then it was the Raiders staying just a point ahead. Butts’ overpass kill tied it 16-16. But Bauer broke the final tie of the match with a kill, Plant reverted to errors, and Bauer put the match away by slamming home a kill down the line.

“It was surreal, being around my whole team and doing that for them,” Bauer said. “While I was in the air, I was thinking that I love the people around me so much, and I’m so happy I could do this for them, for Coach Z and for the school in general. It’s a great honor.”

Journey to a three-peat

When a team enters the season with two consecutive titles, the goal is naturally a third. STA’s eight seniors made sure the Raiders focused on the process.

Marble and Bauer said that the seniors wanted it, and the rest of the team caught the spirit.

“To finish with a state title is a perfect ending,” Bauer said. “It’s satisfying for us because of the work we put into it, with the way we take it slowly. Being able to execute and win it is something you can’t take away from us. And we did it three times in a row to finish our careers.”

Marble pointed to the Raiders’ trip to the Durango Classic in Las Vegas as a turning point in the season. They went 5-2 in the tournament against some of the nation’s best teams.

She said the Raiders earned confidence in that tournament. “The competition was a lot higher there,” she said. “We had to step up our game individually to try to overcome how good their players were.”

Looking ahead

The Raiders return 11 underclassmen in their quest for a four-peat. Several of them played key roles in the match, including setters Costigan and O’Loughlin, libero Cerame and blocker Gardner.

Cerame said that several from this year’s junior varsity will contribute.

Costigan said she’s looking forward to welcoming those who seek to carry on the legacy.

“To help those who are coming to the team, helping them fill positions of those who are leaving, we need to be really encouraging and give them as much guidance as possible and try to get that fourth title,” she said.

Zielinksi said that they have big shoes to fill but that the path is well-charted.

“They had so many seniors who set the example,” Zielinski said. “They leave an example of what’s expected and how to work.”