The Wildcats (29-4) were swept 3-0 by Tampa Plant (25-3) at Polk State College in Winter Haven.

The Panthers were ranked No. 1 and Winter Park was No. 2 across all seven classifications in the FHSAA power rankings.

“They played amazing defense,” Winter Park coach Stephanie Gibson said of the Panthers. “Everything we handed them offensively; they handled it defensively. They are just 6-foot across the line. I have to give Plant a lot of credit.”

Plant won the sets 25-19, 25-21, 25-21 at Polk State College in Winter Haven.

“[The game plan] was to get them out of their system. We wanted to serve tough, and we have some pretty good servers, but they just handled everything. We were not able to swing as much down the line as we wanted to,” Gibson said.

Winter Park was led by Fallon Stewart with 13 kills and 10 digs. Isabel Incinelli added 10 kills while Emma Oritz came up with a stunning 26 digs. Amelia Mancino had 16 digs with 3 kills, and Sarah Webb finished with 13 digs and 1 kill.

Winter Park volleyball girls want to match big brothers’ state championship

“Going into this season we really didn’t expect to go this far with such a good record,” Stewart said. “We had a goal in mind, which was to get better every single day at practice. So as the season went on, the goal became more tangible and more real. Once we got into the playoffs, we knew it was do-or-die at this point.”

Stewart signed with Cincinnati and Ortiz signed with Syracuse two days before they won their Friday semifinal.

“I love this team with my whole heart. This team had the most amount of heart of any team I have seen in my life. We went out with love for each other,” Stewart said.

Plant (25-3) was led by Maggie Dostic with 18 kills and 16 digs. Bella Lee had 30 digs, and Kaylee Peper had 12 kills and 3 digs. Lara Matta had 5 kills and 12 digs while Ella Horvick finished with 13 digs.

“Our game plan was to do us. If you focus too much on the other team, you lose your thoughts. So we made sure to do what we do best,” Plant coach McKensie Herold said. “It was just a great ride the whole time. We always talk team first. It was selfless and that’s how we got here.”

Varsity Report: Bishop Moore, Lake Mary, Winter Park close in on state titles in golf, volleyball

Hornets fall to Gulliver 

The seventh title will have to wait.

Bishop Moore’s bid for a record-setting girls volleyball state championship fell short against No. 1-ranked Miami Gulliver Prep in Saturday morning’s 4A title match.

Gulliver (29-3) dominated the first game, 25-12, but the Hornets evened the score with a 25-17 second-set win before the Raiders closed out the match 26-24, 25-21.

“For the most part, I believe we executed what we wanted to do,” said Bishop Moore coach Tanya Jarvis Starrett, now in her 16th season with the program. “[Gulliver] had some extremely physical players. [Jackie Taylor] and [Julia Rose Rivera] are very elite on their offense, and their setter [Haley Brenner] does a really good job of getting them the ball.”

Bishop Moore (22-9) has won six state championships; two when Starrett was a player and four more under her leadership as head coach. The Hornets share the Orlando area record with Lake Highland Prep and The First Academy — who also own six title trophies.

Bishop Moore was led by Anika Groom with 17 kills and 12 digs while Emily Schellenberg had 23 digs and 6 kills. Leah McDonald had 8 kills and 3 digs. Sophia Ingelias finished with 7 kills and 11 digs.

“None of us really thought we were out of it,” said Schellenberg, a senior outside hitter and four-year varsity player. “There was never a negative moment. We kept positive, and we would say, ‘Next ball,’ and did our very best.

“Being a Bishop Moore volleyball player is so much more than a win-loss record. I have gotten so many skills and built so many relationships and that is what is important.”

Gulliver was led by Taylor with 26 kills, 6.5 blocks and 4 digs. Brenner came up with 23 digs and 7 kills while Rivera finished with 13 kills.

“[Bishop Moore] is a great team and very well coached,” Gulliver coach Emilio Rodriguez said. “We are going to see them again somehow, somewhere. [Starrett] made a huge adjustment in the second set and we had to change our defensive rotations around just to pick up some of the short stuff.”

Varsity Content Editor Buddy Collings can be reached by email at bcollings@orlandosentinel.com. 

The Hornets pulled away from Bishop Kenny (23-8) of Jacksonville to win in four sets in a Friday morning FHSAA Class 4A state semifinal at Polk State College in Winter Haven.

The game scores were 25-18, 22-25, 25-21, 25-23 as Bishop Moore moved to within one victory of standing alone with an Orlando area record of seven state titles in the sport.

Area No. 1 Winter Park pulled out yet another five-set win in its 7A semifinal victory against Jupiter and will join the Hornets in playing for a state championship on Saturday.

Volleyball powers Winter Park, Lake Highland, Bishop Moore, Orangewood reach FHSAA final four

Bishop Moore (23-8) was spurred on by more than 200 of its students who made the one-hour trip to support the team.

“To have our student body behind us was really like a 12th man,” Hornets coach Tanya Jarvis Starrett said.

Sophia Iglesias, a senior, led the Hornets with 12 kills. Junior outside hitter Leah McDonald had 11. Defensively, junior Anika Groom had 22 digs and Emily Schellenberg had 20. Senior outside hitter Sofia Velt contributed 8 digs.

“Bishop Kenny is an extremely disciplined defensive team,” Starrett said. “We knew we were going to have to work hard to score points, and we executed our game plan.”

Bishop Moore will face No. 1-ranked Miami Gulliver Prep (28-3) in Saturday’s 3 p.m. final.

The Hornets played Gulliver earlier this season in the Swing For A Cure tournament and lost 2-0 in two tightly contested sets in the championship match on Oct. 7.

“That was halfway through the season,” Starrett said. “We didn’t have one of our middles. I think both teams have improved and changed.”

Gulliver defeated Academy of the Holy Names 25-21, 20-25, 26-24, 25-21 in its semifinal.

— Nate Marrero

Winter Park prevails 

The streak continues.

Winter Park scored its 22nd consecutive volleyball win Friday, holding off resilient Jupiter for a 3-2 win in a Class 7A semifinal.

The victory catapulted the Wildcats (29-3) into the state-final match at 6 p.m. Saturday at Polk State College. They will face the winner of Friday’s second semifinal, which matched top-ranked Tampa Plant (22-3) against Doral Academy (23-7) of Miami-Dade.

“They just want to win,” Winter Park coach Stephanie Gibson said of her team. “They think one match at a time.”

Winter Park won its first two sets 25-18 and 24-23, but Jupiter rallied to capture the next two, 24-26 and 22-25, forcing the fifth set.

Winter Park took a 6-2 lead in the fifth set and then stepped on the gas to win 15-4.

“This team has done this so many times this year,” Gibson said. “There have been 13 matches this season that we have been down and had to fight our way back. They find a way.”

Winter Park was led by Fallon Stewart with 23 kills and 19 digs. Amelia Mancino produced 22 kills and 18 digs. Emma Ortiz was clutch with 37 digs and Isabel Incinelli had 13.

Winter Park’s girls have won four state championships — all under the watchful eye of Gibson. The last was 2013.

“It is always fun playing for a state title and that is why we are here,” Gibson said.

— Bill Kemp

Lake Mary leads state golf 

Lake Mary put itself in prime position to win a third consecutive FHSAA girls golf Class 3A state championship by shooting a 298 team total on Mission Inn’s Las Solinas course on Friday.

The Rams are 18 shots in front of Niceville (316). St. Cloud (332) and DeLand (334) are third and fourth with 18 holes to go on Saturday.

Ryleigh Knaub shot a 2-under-par 70 for Lake Mary. She trails the individual leader, Dannika Hines of Tampa Steinbrenner, by two shots.

Olympia’s Emma Rynn is third at 71.

In its third straight November trip to the FHSAA golf finals, a senior-laden Dr. Phillips boys squad is in its best position after the first day.

Two years ago, the Panthers played poorly after winning a region title. Last year, Hurricane Nicole shortened the event to one day and DP again fell short.

On Friday, after its second regional title in three years, DP shot 302 and is in the hunt on the El Campeon course. The Panthers trail frontrunner Fleming Island by 10 shots.

“Last year we were doing great and the hurricane happened,” Panthers coach Jerry Updike said. “We played well today, especially Brandon [Lohr] and Taneesh [Sirivolu] scrambled well out there.”

Windermere stands sixth at 313.

Lohr is tied for second individually with a 2-under-par 70. Sirivolu is five strokes back at 73.

Also shooting 73 were Hagerty’s Arth Sinha and Windermere’s Cameron Baez while brother Carson Baez shot 74.

— Steve Gorches 

More playoff action

Also Friday, the Class 3A swimming and diving championships were going on in Ocala.

Check back for results from those events.

Winter Park volleyball girls want to match big brothers’ state championship

Varsity Content Editor Buddy Collings can be reached by email at bcollings@orlandosentinel.com.

Orlando Christian rallied from an 18-point deficit in the fourth quarter but fell to Weston Sagemont 67-66 in the FHSAA Class 2A state-championship game on Friday at the RP Funding Center.

“We needed one more second on the clock,” Orlando Christian coach Treig Burke said. “It was a good comeback, and it’s hard to come back on good teams. So hats off to them for putting us in that situation.”

OCP beat Sagemont last year in the 2A title game, 66-49, for its 10th state championship, placing OCP third on the state’s all-time championships list.

“I really appreciate my guys coming back and competing and fighting in the second half to make it a one-possession game,” Burke said.

The final 33 seconds were epic. With Sagemont up 66-61, OCP guard Ameer Ramadan was fouled by Depotae Jean, his fifth. But before Ramadan could get to the foul line, a technical foul was called on Sagemont coach David Roe for taking more than 15 seconds to make a substitution, thus sending OCP’s Ka’leel Stillman to the line.

“I didn’t know that rule. I learned it today in the state championship game,” Roe said.

Stillman connected on one of the two technical free throws and Ramadan followed by canning both of his free-throw shots to narrow the Sagemont lead to 66-64.

Isaiah Brown dramatically tied the game 66-66 when he put back an offensive rebound with just 13 seconds remaining.

OCP (25-4) fouled Sagemont guard Ashton Smith with one second left. He hit 1-of-2 free throws to give Sagemont the 67-66 lead, leaving .05 on the clock.

Ramadan attempted a desperation full-court shot at the buzzer, but it fell way short.

“Five-tenths of a second wasn’t enough. We needed 1.5 seconds left. So we ran out of time,” Burke said. “Sagemont made the plays at the end they needed to make.”

Sagemont (29-4) hit the halftime locker room holding a 33-18 lead after OCP missed all six of its 3-point shots. OCP shot just 26 percent from the field, hitting on 6-of-23 attempts in the half.

“Basketball is an imperfect game, and that is probably one of things we didn’t have when we needed it, which was some shooting,” Burke said. “I think we needed to make six 3’s in this game and we only made five. The ball just didn’t go in the basket when we needed it to.”

OCP got its long-distance game on track in the third quarter by hitting four 3-point shots, including two by Isaiah Sutherland. However, Sagemont connected on six 3-pointers and outscored OCP 20-18 in the period to push its lead to 53-36.

Brown led all scorers with 28 points and nine rebounds. Ramadan finished with 16 points while Isaiah Sutherland and Marc Angueki each scored 8.

“It was a lot of points, 28, but it wasn’t enough,” Brown said. “As a team, collectively, we could have worked a little bit better together, hit a couple more shots and we could have brought this home.”

Sagemont was led by Tynan Becker with 25 points while Smith scored 15 and Jean had 12.

“Sagemont is a good-passing team and they made shots,” Burke said. “We just had to change up our defense and pick up the tempo a little bit just to get them off their rhythm.”

A win would have catapulted OCP into an elite group of seven four-peat state champions, which includes Jacksonville Country Day (5), Malone (5), Fort Lauderdale Dillard (5), Miami Norland (4), Port St. Joe (4) and Daytona Beach Seabreeze (4).

OCP had won 27 consecutive playoff games since dropping the state final to Pope John Paul II of Tallahassee in 2019.

This report was first published at Orlandosentinel.com. Varsity Content Editor Buddy Collings can be reached by email at bcollings@orlandosentinel.com.

Lake Highland Prep unleashed a second-half press and transfer guard Jada Eads put her foot on the gas to pull away from well-disciplined Jacksonville Bishop Kenny, 55-45, and win the FHSAA Class 4A state championship on Saturday at RP Funding Center.

The win was the fourth consecutive girls basketball state championship for the Highlanders (25-6). It was also the sixth state championship for the program, which also won back-to-back titles in 2015 and ’16.

“It is an incredible feeling, and I am just a guy standing out front, ” said Lake Highland Prep coach Al Honor, a 1984 West Orange High graduate. “I have been blessed to coach some wonderful young ladies that want the same thing that I do. The culture was set a long time ago and they did a great job of upholding that culture.”

Eads, a junior guard, transferred from Wekiva where she was part of two-consecutive 6A state runner-up finishes during her freshman and sophomore seasons. She led all scorers with 21 points – 10 in the pivotal fourth quarter – to hammer down her first state championship.

Lake Highland guard Lexi Blue, who finished with 10 points and 6 rebounds, picked up her third foul midway through the third quarter but remained on the floor through the rest of a defensive battle and never picked up her fourth.

“This whole year we’ve had a lot of close games, and we played some of the top teams in the country and it didn’t end the way we wanted it to. So, to have this happen and have the four-peat was big for us,” Blue said.

Highlanders senior guard Eleecia Carter, who has been with the program since the sixth grade, finished with 10 points while going 6-for-6 from the free throw line.

LHP found itself trailing 17-13 at the half with the Crusaders displaying great patience with the ball on offense. When the third quarter arrived, however, Honor made the first move to switch to full-court pressure defense.

“[Bishop Kenny] played a good game, but our girls woke up and I woke up and realized what was going on. It was time for us to turn it up a little bit and I was really proud of the way they responded,” he said.

“[Bishop Kenny] did a great job of slowing the game down in minimizing possessions, and it worked because when I looked up there was just three minutes left in the first half. I was like, ‘Wow, we never applied pressure’ and usually I do.”

Crusaders post player Clare Coyle fouled out with 3:03 left and the Highlanders led 42-36. Coyle was a rebounding force, hauling down 14 – 12 on the defensive glass.

“We went toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the state for three quarters, and we just ran out of gas a little bit in the fourth quarter,” Bishop Kenny coach Will Mayer said.

This report was first published at Orlandosentinel.com. Varsity Content Editor Buddy Collings can be reached by email at bcollings@orlandosentinel.com.

Lakeland intercepted Quinn Niemann three times in the first quarter – two were pick-6s – and rode it to a 41-6 win over Lake Minneola in a Class 4S, Region 2 final on Friday at Bryant Stadium.

With the win, Lakeland advances to the FHSAA 4S state semifinals on Friday.

“Trust me, we were not expecting that,” Lake Minneola coach Walter Banks said. “Two pick-6s put us in a hole. It is hard to fight back with a great team like Lakeland after that. It knocked us completely off our game plan.”

The first came at 9:53 when Ka’Maurri McKinley darted 69 yards after making the interception to put Lakeland up 6-0. Just 51 seconds later, the Dreadnaughts scored again on a 49-yard interception return by R.J. Kelly to go up 13-0.

Lake Minneola answered with a 49-yard touchdown run by John Celestin with 4:19 left in the first quarter to narrow the lead to 13-6. But before the quarter ended, Lakeland junior running back Markel Johnson exploded on a 30-yard touchdown run.

“We had the ball three times down on the goal line and didn’t score. Once we didn’t get them in there, it blew us off schedule,” Banks said.

“We are fairly young, especially on the offensive line where we started four freshmen. It’s not an excuse but we need to learn how to win high-profile games like this.”

Niemann finished 14-of-29 passing for 108 yards with 4 interceptions and no touchdowns. Celestin gained 94 yards rushing on 22 carries.

The Dreadnaughts entered the half leading 27-6 after getting a 6-yard touchdown run from Don’Ares Johnson – the first of his 3 touchdown runs – with 4:05 left in the half.

Lakeland scored two more times in the second half, getting touchdowns by Johnson from 72 and 12 yards. He finished with 125 yards rushing on 10 carries.

This report was first published at Orlandosentinel.com.

Top-ranked Lake Highland Prep dominated Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons on Wednesday, cruising to a 69-34 FHSAA girls basketball Class 4A state semifinal victory to earn a shot at back-to-back state titles.

The Highlanders (28-3) will face Brooks DeBartolo (26-4) of Tampa for the championship at 8:05 p.m. Thursday at The Lakeland Center.

“I think we are well prepared. Everyone says they are choosing us to win but I don’t think that gives up any edge,” said Lake Highland senior point guard Jordan Lewis, who finished with 12 points and and six rebounds. “Everyone is still going to play their hardest.”

LHP dominated from the tap, taking a commanding 19-2 first-quarter lead which moved to 34-9 by the half. Freshman Koi Love scored 12 first-half points from her wing position for the Highlanders.

“The first half we just wanted to come out and swing and keep swinging,” said Love, who finished with 18 points and nine rebounds.

The Highlanders had four players reach double figures. Rachel Jablonski also scored 18 points and Tyra Cox finished with 14.

“Our preparation has always been to come out hard,” Lake Highland Prep head coach Al Honor said. “Part of our job in the postseason is to work hard on our defense and come in with a certain edge.”

Bill Kemp is sports reporter for the Lakeland Ledger