The Santa Fe Raiders volleyball team found themselves in an unfamiliar position at home in their Region 2-4A quarterfinal match on Wednesday night.
Behind.
But after dropping the opening set 25-17 to visiting Satellite (Satellite Beach), the Raiders easily took the next three sets to clinch their regional playoff opener 17-25, 25-11, 25-15, 25-14 at Loretta Shane Gymnasium.
Santa Fe (20-7) dropped the opening set thanks to some hot serving by the Scorpions.
“I think we were up 5-1, 7-1 and we were dialed in and getting every ball we wanted,” Santa Fe coach Eric Marshall said. “Then they (Satellite) put us under a ton of service pressure. They started serving with a ridiculous amount of pace and they were all going in.”
That started turning around in the second set, as Santa Fe got off to an early lead and cruised to a victory to even the match at a set apiece.
“At some point as a coach you wonder, can they really continue this for four sets?” Marshall said. “Luckily, the second set they started missing some serves, started hitting some out-of-system balls.”
The third set was more of the same. After splitting the first eight points, the Raiders moved out to a lead and once again never looked back, using four aces to take the third set and move ahead in the match.
The fourth set saw Satellite (13-13) hanging in, trailing only 11-9, before Santa Fe took a timeout and went on a 9-0 run to salt away the win. Freshman Avarey Cole, just called up from the JV team recently, served an ace to end the match.
Santa Fe was led by senior and Iowa commit Gia McGrew with 17 kills and she added seven digs. But three other Santa Fe players had double-digit kills.
Junior Brooke Findley added 14 kills, junior and Georgia Southern commit Delaney Wingenbach had 12, and junior Alexis Rhoden chipped in with 10.
“We can’t be a one-man show,” Marshall said. “We have really good middles. We have to get the ball in the middle. We started getting the ball into Delaney and Alexis and putting pressure on their block, which opened up the outside.”
Findley led Santa Fe with 5 aces, and added 20 digs, with sophomore Karlee Noah leading with 24 digs. Junior Gracyn Marshall, a West Florida commit, led with 26 assists and junior Morgan Lawson added 18.
Santa Fe, the third seed in Region 2-4A, now hits the road to No. 2 seed Merritt Island in Saturday’s region semifinal.
“Obviously I would much rather be home, I love the home crowd,” Marshall said. “We aren’t afraid of other school’s gyms. It will be about fundamentals. If we do it better than Merritt Island, we will beat them, and vice versa.”
Wednesday scores
Class 5A-Region 2 Quarterfinal
8 South Fork (Stuart) d. 1 Gainesville 25-20, 27-25, 25-21
Class 4A Region 2 Quarterfinals
3 Santa Fe (Alachua) d. 6 Satellite 17-25, 25-11, 25-15, 25-14
Class 4A-Region 1 Quarterfinal
2 Bishop Kenny (Jacksonville) d. 7 Suwannee (Live Oak) 25-10, 25-7, 25-13
