- Gainesville High volleyball swept Ridgeview 25-18, 25-16, 25-17 despite missing two key seniors Jordyn Barnard and Whitney Kinsell.
- Charlotte Judge scored 12 service points with 6 aces and Jorryn Dye added 5 aces and 6 kills to lead GHS to victory in a district match.
The Gainesville High School volleyball team got back in the win column on Monday night, but not without some adjustments on the fly.
GHS, which lost at Buchholz last Wednesday, swept Ridgeview in Orange Park 25-18, 25-16, 25-17 in a FHSAA Class 5A-District 3 match to move above .500 overall.
“It’s hard to come into somebody else’s environment, like these floors; they’re very slippery, so the girls had to be a little bit extra cautious, and that took a bit to just get accustomed to, and the net was higher, so we kept kind of hitting on the net,” said GHS coach Jerica Carter-Mitchell.
Plus, the ‘Canes (11-10) played without senior outside hitter Jordyn Barnard (ankle injury) and senior S/DS Whitney Kinsell (out sick).
“But it was great because we got to get everybody in,” Carter-Mitchell said. “And that’s what these games are for, to get everybody a chance to get on the court, and still be able to pull out a win makes it a lot better.”
Ridgeview (4-12), which was swept at GHS on Aug. 31, took a 15-13 lead in the opening set following an ace by sophomore Zoe Allen. That completed a 6-0 run after trailing 13-9 following a kill by GHS junior Jacey Carter-Mitchell (7 kills, 3 blocks).
But a service error by Allen put senior Charlotte Judge (12 service points, 6 aces) on the service line. Judge had seven straight service points, including an ace, for a 21-15 lead they would not surrender.
“The past few games haven’t been their best, so I felt like I needed to come in and really focus on my serving and work harder on making sure I can help my team get points there,” Judge said.
Judge also had an ace to start the night’s scoring and a quick 1-0 lead in the first game.
“I feel like Thursday’s practice was very intentional,” Judge said. “We worked really hard, and we knew coming into this that we have to work harder through the end of our season. So, coming in, especially since it’s a district game, we came in and we took care of business.”
Following the 25-18 win in the opening set, University of North Florida commit Jorryn Dye (5 aces, 6 kills) had her own service run in the second game. She turned an 8-7 deficit into a 14-8 lead as senior Kenzie Carter-Mitchell added the final two kills of the run.
“I’m just consistently serving hard and trying to keep my team on a run,” Dye said.
Dye was also dominant at the net. She added a couple of ferocious kills in the third set, the last of which gave the Hurricanes a 20-16 lead and put her back on the service line. She followed up the kill with an ace.
“I just try to help the team get a point, basically,” Dye said. “I just keep swinging as hard as I can.”
Junior outside hitter Nari White followed Dye’s ace with consecutive kills, extending the lead to 23-16.
“We’ve been kind of adding her into our lineup since our Tampa tournament when others aren’t getting it done,” Carter-Mitchell said. “Nari’s just very positive out there. She can be loud. She’s a very big vocal leader even when she doesn’t play as much. She’s very vocal on the bench as far as giving feedback, and she’s very good as far as a spark plug for us.”
GHS hosts Class 2A No. 4 Florida Trinity Catholic (Ocala), which is ranked 12th overall in Florida, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, followed by a trip to 4A Vanguard (Ocala), formerly a district opponent, on Thursday.
“We’re hoping that if the girls can play the way that we’ve seen them play, we’ve seen them play well against The Villages and other games too, I told them, ‘We know how you can play,’ so we just have to have everybody firing and have minimal errors against them,” Carter-Mitchell said. “If I can get my girls to go out there and play an unbelievable match, then we can compete with Trinity.”