LAKEWOOD RANCH — It wasn’t long ago when Saint Stephen’s volleyball team was foreign to the regional playoffs.
The Falcons are now well are on their way to making the postseason an annual part of their schedule.
They swept past host Out-of-Door Academy 3-0 during Tuesday’s Class 2A-District 11 quarterfinals at the Petrik Thunderdome, clinching a berth in Thursday’s 7 p.m. championship game against top-seeded St. Petersburg Northside Christian.
They’re also guaranteed to be playing next Wednesday, when the Class 2A-Region 3 tournament begins. The two top finishers from each district advance.
“It’s a great feeling,” said coach Nancy Cothron.
It was a feeling the second-seeded Falcons (20-4) lost touch with prior to last year, when they reached the regional round for the first time since 2002.
They have certainly had no trouble furthering the momentum this season — Tuesday’s victory was the Falcons’ 13th in a row. All but one of those have come via sweep.
“For the past two years, it’s been the same girls,” said junior hitter Alyssa Allen, who had a team-best 10 kills Tuesday. “We know where people like to hit, we know where their strengths are. So we just push at those areas.”
The third-seeded Thunder (11-6) did plenty of pushing Tuesday, owning late leads in Games 2 (17-16) and 3 (23-21) after losing Game 1 (25-14).
But the Falcons pushed back both times, scoring a 25-21 win in Game 2 and winning the clincher 25-23.
“We weren’t communicating as well as we were in the first game,” Allen said. “We were missing some of our serves...But we picked it back up. I have faith in all the girls and we help each other out.”
That they did. Maggie Holbert had 26 assists and four aces, and Kodi Eastman had seven service points in the finale and six aces overall.
“Some people stepped up,” Cothron said.
Jonna Marchese had five kills for ODA.
The Falcons now turn their gaze toward Thursday, where they will face the Mustangs, who swept them Sept. 14.
“I don’t know that we’ve peaked yet. Hopefully, that’s still coming,” Cothron said. “They’re ready to see whoever will see (in regional), (but) we’ve got to get through Thursday first. We’re excited about playing Thursday because we only got to play them once...They’re just solid all around.”
“We’ve just got to bring it on Thursday,” Allen said, “that’s it.”
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