Canes’ season, regional streak come to an end

PUNTA GORDA — Perhaps this time next season, Manatee’s volleyball team will handle the situation differently.

And perhaps the result will wind up differently, as well.

The Hurricanes fell 3-1 to Punta Gorda Charlotte during a Class 5A-District 10 quarterfinal match Saturday morning, ending their season and preventing Manatee (7-19) from making a fifth straight trip to the regional playoffs.

The youth-laden Canes, the tournament’s fifth seed who didn’t return a single starter from last year’s team and featured three seniors on the roster, grabbed Game 1 off the fourth-seeded Tarpons (14-8) 25-14 before Charlotte bit back with a 25-13 win in Game 2.

That’s when things turned. The Hurricanes squandered a 24-22 lead, and the two teams traded points and serves before the Tarpons escaped with a 30-28 victory.

They then clinched a berth in Tuesday’s semifinal at Venice by winning Game 4 25-22.

“You win the first game, you’re good. You lose the second game, that’s fine. You win the third game — now you’re rolling,” said Manatee coach Jessica Hinkle. “You lose that third game, that’s hard to recover from.”

Unlike in past years, this year’s Canes weren’t too familiar with high-wire matches such as Saturday’s, where only the winner kept their season afloat.

“You’ve got to be in those situations,” Hinkle said, “to get smarter, to get more mature, to become a better player.”

Manatee did show flashes of what could be a brighter future. Freshman Rachel Drummey, who practiced with the Hurricanes on Friday, had three aces, four kills and four digs.

“I thought she did phenomenal,” Hinkle said. “Maybe I didn’t move her up fast enough.”

Junior Hailey Hall was Manatee’s big hitter, finishing with 14 kills and two aces. She also had 15 digs.

Paige Pierro had 15 digs and three aces and Shelby Knox added three aces, five kills and three digs. Both are seniors.

“We’ll come back, do a lot of changes,” Hall said. “We’ll pick it up. Our record will be totally different next year.

“The beginning of the season was a little rough — there was a lot of different personalities. But we all kind of clicked and got together. So everything’s coming along.”

Now it’s for Manatee to evaluate.

“I’ll reflect, like I always do,” Hinkle said. “I’m my hardest critic. I’ll look back and I’ll see what we could have done differently.”