Buchholz heard the talk, then the Bobcats walked the walk.
On Wednesday night at Bud Seymour Gymnasium, the host ‘Cats dominated the first two sets against rival Gainesville High School en route to a 25-14, 25-10, 15-25, 25-18 victory.
“It feels great because before the game they were really talking their smack,” said University of Georgia commit Aaliyah Ray, who led Buchholz with four blocks along with eight kills and five aces. “So, I let it slide, and then you get to the game, guess what happened?”
The first serve of the night from Ray was an ace for a 2-1 lead. It was one of five aces for the junior, who pointed to a disappointing loss to Santa Fe (Alachua) the night before.
“It really boosted us,” Ray said. “I’m glad we came back today stronger because I kind of lost some confidence from last night. But I came in stronger because when people start talking bad about us when we’re playing here, and my home, that’s when you gotta show.”
GHS (10-10) spent the entire game playing catchup as Buchholz went on a pair of 4-0 runs to build a 17-8 lead before the Hurricanes called a second timeout. The lead grew to double digits, 20-10, on a kill by junior Aubrey Waters.
“She has improved a lot just from the start of the season into now,” said first-year Buchholz coach Amanda Falck. “She has a heavy arm, and she’s just unstoppable a lot of the times. It’s amazing.”
GHS junior Jacey Carter-Mitchell cut it to single digits with a kill but Buchholz junior Demmi Strappy (8 kills, 2 blocks) quickly extended it to a 10-point lead, 22-11, with a kill.
Waters led the Bobcats (10-7) with 12 kills. She added two of those early in the second set on a tipped kill and a cross court kill for a 5-0 Buchholz lead.
“I feel like I played pretty good,” Waters said. “I would say I started really confident. I always know going into games, I like envision myself playing good, and then it like helps me play good, and I just know I need to trust my teammates, trust all the hard work I’ve put in, and just stay really confident, and then I can help my team that way to win.”
The Bobcats had a 4-0 run to take a double-digit lead and a 5-0 run to end Game 2, 25-10, on a kill by Ray.
“I think we got, I guess you could say, our groove back,” Falck said. “I mean, that was the best we’ve played in a while. But all in all, I’m proud of how they played for sure.”
Gainesville’s best run was 2-0 during the first two games, but they broke through in the third game to avoid the sweep.
The Hurricanes trailed, 15-12, but they scored the final 13 points to win, 25-15, behind the serving of junior Izzy Carter (24 digs, 2 aces). Jacey Carter-Mitchell was a key contributor during the run, including the final two of the game.
“Jorryn (Dye) did a great job behind the service line for us,” said GHS coach Jerica Carter-Mitchell. “She was tough serves, and that’s really what our weakness has been lately is just not being able to serve tough enough to get any of our teams out of system that we’ve been playing, so I was glad to see that. We have moments of greatness, and we’ve just got to be able to keep it.”
Carter’s two aces were consecutively in the fourth set for a 12-7 lead, forcing another GHS timeout. The Hurricanes never reclaimed an early 7-6 lead.
The win was the second for Buchholz in the last three games of the series, after GHS won the previous nine games. The Hurricanes will get a chance to even the season series with win at The Purple Palace on October 7.
Gainesville will travel to Ridgeview (Orange Park) on Monday for a Class 5A-District 3 match, while Class 6A Buchholz plays at Forest (Ocala) on Monday.