Manatee opens region tournament with sweep of Orlando Cypress Creek
BRADENTON -- Forty minutes before Manatee's region quarterfinal against Orlando Cypress Creek began at Manatee High School, Tony Cothron was ready to begin warm-ups. His team was not. Now, it was time for him to give the speech.
The Class 8A-Region 2 tournament began Wednesday, ushering in the win-or-go-home portion of the schedule. A year earlier, the Hurricanes never did lose and claimed their first state championship. It was uncharted territory then and now Cothron decided it was time to remind them of the stakes.
"You lose and you're done," he told them. "You need to take this serious now because this is the start of our steps that we have to complete."
Less than an hour and a half later, the Canes had the first of the five wins they need to repeat as state champions, a 3-0 (25-13, 25-17, 25-18) sweep of the District 5 runner-up. Once the match began, the Hurricanes' play was steady enough to breeze by an overmatched Cypress Creek team.
The Bears only scored consecutive points three times during the first set and twice in the second. There were only four instances during the entire match when Cypress Creek managed to score more than
two points in a row and only one of those runs went longer than three.
The Canes (24-4) made quick adjustments Wednesday and the Bears (15-9) were never able to respond with sustained success.
"I like that we're able to adjust on the fly," Cothron said. "They were able to adjust. Move the block inside, move it outside. They can do it on the fly."
In the Class 8A-District 6 semifinal against Sarasota Riverview, Manatee's blockers stayed low, forcing Riverview to try lobbing shots over top.
The Hurricanes started with a similar strategy in the region tournament and quickly realized it wasn't working. Cothron called for a change and the Canes responded with a sweep even after the sluggish start.
"That's important for us to do moving on," said Haley Coulter, who is verbally committed to Tulsa, "to make sure we get those runs and make sure we stop their runs."
Middle blocker Jacqui Armer, a Louisiana State commit, was Manatee's most formidable defender, blocking four shots to go along with six kills. Libero Kara Saylor led the team with 12 digs behind her. Outside hitters Haley and JoJo Coulter each added eight digs to go along with 13 and 10 kills, respectively.
Outside hitter Grayson Hall rounded out the Hurricanes' attack from the right side with six kills and setter Gabby Coulter handed out 35 assists.
The Canes, who won District 6, will host the runner-up Rams 2 p.m. Saturday in Bradenton after Riverview swept Olympia 3-0 on Wednesday in Orlando. Manatee won both meetings with the Rams this year, sweeping Riverview in the district final and winning in five sets during the regular season.
"Tomorrow and Saturday the warm-up will be a little different," Cothron said. "It's really hard to beat a team three times in a row.
They're gonna come in fired up and we're gonna have to take care of business if we want to carry on. I think from here on out they'll be pretty set and ready to go."
This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Manatee opens region tournament with sweep of Orlando Cypress Creek ."