Prep volleyball | Errors doom Manatee High during battle of defending state champs in Venice
VENICE -- Midway through the second set Tuesday, Manatee found itself in position to finally swing the momentum of its heavyweight match against defending Class 6A volleyball champion Venice. After dropping the opener, the Hurricanes seized a five-point lead in the Venice High School gymnasium. They were 12 points away from evening the match.
It was a bad time for the Canes' greatest fault to resurface. JoJo Coulter tried to sneak a serve down the left sideline and it drifted out of bounds. Jacqui Armer was the next to serve and by this point Manatee's lead was down to four. Her serve sailed feet beyond the back line. Then it was Gillian Cassidy and her serve went long, too.
The Hurricanes let the Indians hang around and eventually Venice clawed out a three-point win. A bit later, the Indians closed out a stunning 3-0 (25-17, 25-22, 25-23) win in a meeting of defending state champions.
"We worked so hard to get up a few points," head coach Tony Cothron said, "and then we just kind of squandered it away."
The Canes (20-2, 4-0 Class 8A-6) won their first game against the Indians (14-9, 4-0 Class 7A-11) back on Sept. 3 and said a win in Venice would have been a "feather in our cap." Brian Wheatley turned Cothron's words into bulletin-board material and the Indians head coach carried a feather with him during the match.
Wheatley says his team has turned a corner during the past few weeks and Venice entered Tuesday with four wins in its past five matches. His defense caused problems and the Indians limited Manatee to 10 kills during the final set to deal the Hurricanes their first 3-0 loss in two years.
"Our defense has improved tremendously, which has created our offense," Wheatley said. "Really it's our defense that's really picking up and as the grind comes down we're playing our best ball of the year."
But the Canes had trouble sustaining leads the entire match. They led 12-8 in the first set before falling 25-17. In the second Manatee led 13-8 and lost 25-22. The Hurricanes only led for a single point during the third, but nearly erased a 23-19 deficit before ending the match with a 25-23 loss.
In each set, when the Canes fell behind for good Venice's defense shut down hopes of a comeback.
"They made a lot of plays, one-armed stabs," Cothron said. "For the most part all year those balls have been going down. Call it luck. Call it, 'In the right spot.'
"It was going their way tonight."
Outside hitter Haley Coulter and Armer still provided their blows, delivering 11 and eight kills respectively - Coulter also finished with 10 digs - but Manatee struggled to sustain any offense and match the Indians' hitters. Venice's Hannah Richards led all players with 21 kills.
Despite the loss in the Hurricanes' penultimate match of the regular season, Cothron isn't worrying yet about a disappointing end to the season. The Canes are still missing setter Gabby Coulter, which forced Cassidy to handle the position for nearly the entire match--she led the team with 23 assists--and the head coach will be optimistic once the team returns to full strength.
"It's a learning experience," Cothron said. "I want the girls to go through some adversity and see if they can come together a little more. Do I want to do it here? No. I think they'll be OK."
This story was originally published October 14, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Prep volleyball | Errors doom Manatee High during battle of defending state champs in Venice ."