Tuesday night’s high school volleyball match between Gainesville High and visiting Forest (Ocala) featured two of the top 70 teams in the state, regardless of classification.
The visiting Wildcats, who are ranked 59th in the latest FHSAA overall rankings, had the upper hand early.
However, the Hurricanes, ranked 69th, rallied from an early 1-0 deficit for a 24-26, 25-17, 25-23, 25-22 win at The Purple Palace.
“We knew this was going to be a tough match for the week, and last year it was a similar, very intense game, down to the wire,” said Gainesville coach Jerica Carter-Mitchell. “They had good serves off the bat and their second serve receive, they got big runs, pretty much every set, so we had to come from behind.”
Class 7A Forest (9-7) raced out to a 6-1 lead in the opening set, but 5A GHS (11-7) answered with three consecutive kills by sophomore Jacey Carter-Mitchell to tie it at 8-8.
From there, neither team built more than a 2-point lead until a block by senior Ava Robinson gave Forest a 23-20 lead.
However, the Hurricanes battled back to tie it at 24-all on an ace by junior Charlotte Judge and an attack error.
A kill by freshman Savanna Eatman gave Forest set point at 25-24, and an attack error by the Hurricanes gave the Wildcats the 26-24 win.
There were 12 lead changes in the opening set.
“I think the scrappiness from us and Forest tonight, we both showed extreme levels of that,” said University of West Florida commit Rowan Kage. “Every ball was getting up; nothing was hitting the ground. Obviously, it made the match go longer, but I think it made it more entertaining and more fun for us to play.”
The second set was a game of runs.
After Forest built an early 4-0 lead, GHS responded with a 4-0 run to tie it 4-4 on kills by Kage and junior Kenzie Carter-Mitchell, including three service points from sophomore Jorryn Dye.
The Hurricanes proceeded to take their largest lead of the night at 12-7 on an 8-0 run, highlighted by seven service points by junior Jordyn Barnard (4 aces, 1 block).
“The first set, we were looking at the stats, and really only Charlotte got any service runs,” Jerica Carter-Mitchell said. “Everybody else just one attempt and out, so the strategy was to keep every server that goes back there serving and running points, and then they pretty much executed. They did really well overall, making minimal service errors.”
Later in the second set, a cross-court kill by Kage (17 kills, 2 blocks) gave GHS a 19-14 lead, and it was followed by another Kage kill, an ace by Dye, and a kill by Kenzie Carter-Mitchell for a 22-14 advantage. The ‘Canes scored the final three points in a 25-17 win in the second set.
“I think we played great,” said Jacey Carter-Mitchell, who also finished with 17 kills and two blocks. “They’re a really scrappy team. We tried to match their energy, and I guess it worked.”
With the match tied at one game apiece, the Wildcats responded with a 7-0 run in the third set, which included a pair of aces by senior Mae Owen.
Gainesville had its own run, turning a 9-2 deficit into a 9-9 tie on another kill by Kage.
“We can always depend on her as far as being more crafty with the shots,” Jerica Carter-Mitchell said. “She pretty much hit every part of the court you could think of, so that’s really good that she can do that for us, and then others are starting to do that as well. We’ve been practicing that, shooting the corners, rolling, going, you know, just tipping-type stuff versus just hitting. We’re all trying to emulate Rowan right now.”
Forest took a late lead at 21-20 on a kill by freshman Peyten Coldwell, but Kage responded with a kill and an ace and Jacey Carter-Mitchell’s block gave GHS a 24-21 lead.
The ‘Canes won the third set, 25-23, on a service error.
Once again, Forest battled back and took its largest lead at 12-5 on an ace by senior Kyndall Seek.
GHS called a timeout and quickly regrouped, eventually tying it at 16 apiece.
“We called time-outs, we came together, and we talked about what we could fix,” Kage said. “We changed some things around, like serve/receive and stuff like that. We relied on different players. We didn’t rely on just one every single set. It was different players stepping up, so I think that was a big part.”
Jacey Carter-Mitchell gave GHS a 19-17 lead, forcing Forest to call a timeout.
“If she gets a good set, she can hit it hard, and it’s hard to defend, it’s hard to block,” Jerica Carter-Mitchell said. “They did a good job realizing that we weren’t being really tricky with her, I mean it was just one, so for them, they could just kind of stay on her, and she did get blocked here and there, so they did a good job adjusting.”
Dye (8 kills, 4 aces) took over at the end of the fourth set.
With GHS clinging to a 20-19 lead, she had five of her eight kills to give the Hurricanes the 25-22 victory.
“She really shined tonight, defensively and offensively for us,” Jerica Carter-Mitchell said. “She’s getting there where we can depend on her. We know she’s going to hit and she’s going to get a kill, so that was really nice for us at the end.”
The Hurricanes are back in action at 7 p.m. on Thursday for a Class 5A-District 5 match against Vanguard (Ocala) at The Purple Palace.
