Published: Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009

Updated: Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009

Noles fall; Cougars advance to finals

ARCADIA — Everything, supposedly, was aligned perfectly for Southeast to make a run at its first appearance in the state volleyball tournament.

The Seminoles dropped down from Class 5A this season, where they didn’t have to face tradition-rich opponents like Venice and Manatee, to Class 3A.

And the Noles sported three seniors who have played varsity since entering high school.

It all seemed perfect until they entered DeSoto County High’s gymnasium Tuesday night in the Class 3A-District 10 tournament semifinals.

The Noles gave it everything they had, but fell to the Bulldogs 25-20, 25-19, 27-25.

DeSoto will face Cardinal Mooney on Thursday for the district title, after the Cougars used 20 minutes to defeat Wauchula Hardee 25-6, 25-9, 25-6 in the matinee.

“The last two years, we had Venice and Manatee in our district,” Noles senior outside hitter Katie DiGirolamo said, “and even if we played good in the district finals we didn’t really have a chance. So this year was our year, especially when the three freshmen (DiGirolamo, Hannah Bartges and Alyssa Hernandez) that started varsity, we are now seniors. We thought this was our year.”

However, Southeast was bumped down to a classification with the Bulldogs, the Class 4A state runner-up last season.

Noles coach first-year coach Vince Strefling said it all came down to the team that made fewer mistakes.

“It was going to be the team that comes out and limits the unforced errors,” Strefling said. “And takes advantage of certain situations, and we just didn’t do that.”

In all, the Noles (18-8) had 26 unforced errors.

“We all didn’t click (Tuesday),” DiGirolamo said. “We didn’t step it up. We weren’t excited enough. We didn’t step up, and I think we all wanted to.”

DiGirolamo led Southeast with 13 kills, two aces and two blocks, Bartges had 12 spikes and two aces, and Hernandez turned in 31 assists.

Southeast held commanding leads in all three games, but failed to sustain them. The Noles had a three-point advantage in the first game and six-point cushions over DeSoto (21-5) in the final two games.

“I think that was our seventh two-point game against them,” Bulldogs coach David Bremer said. “There was so much pressure on this game, because if you lose you are out. The players are yelling playoffs, but I’m yelling district title, because I want a ninth one.”

Cardinal Mooney has the same goal.

The Cougars thumped the Wildcats in quick fashion, behind Erin Mooney’s six digs and four kills and Lauren Gonzales’ 10 aces, three kills and three digs.”

“We definitely didn’t want to take Hardee lightly even though we beat them twice during the season,” Cardinal Mooney coach Aiko Averill said. “Our goal was to win quickly, so we can save energy for the next round, because it’s going to be very tough.”