The Buchholz volleyball team’s quest to end Santa Fe’s winning streak fell short on Tuesday night at Bud Seymore Gymnasium.
The visiting Raiders dropped the first set but rallied 19-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-22 to win for the 11th straight time in the series.
“Playing Santa Fe, every single year, is always going to be a tough match,” said Buchholz coach Andre Medina. “We love it. There’s a lot of bad blood and history there, and that’s what’s awesome for high school sports. They have five seniors on their squad. We’re super young. I think we play a majority of sophomores and freshmen, so we knew that there was going to be a battle there… we started off strong. The kids started executing great in that first set, but I think our youth kind of showed just a little bit in the latter part.”
The Bobcats (1-1) took a quick 3-0 lead in the opening set thanks to a pair of aces by sophomore Julia Almond (39 assists) and a back line kill by sophomore Aubrey Waters (12 kills).
Despite trailing by as many as six in the opening set, the Raiders took their first lead at 19-18 on a block by senior Brooke Findley (15 kills).
However, the Bobcats answered with a 7-0 run, highlighted by three aces from freshman Kiana Wilburn. Freshman Taylor Sembower had a couple of kills as part of the run.
“I’m not making excuses, but since Emarie (Carlisle) broke her wrist, we haven’t had a practice, because we’ve had back-to-back games, so we’re in a rotation we’ve never practiced,” said Santa Fe coach Eric Marshall, whose team improved to 3-0. “We still should be good enough, but our serve receive, they’re not in the right patterns. It’s bad, so we’re going to have to work on serve receive. That’s what killed us in set one.”
Sembower led the Bobcats with 16 kills and a .444 hitting percentage.
“I know that their game plan was to keep the ball away from her, and I think if you look at our stats, you see that she probably had the least amount of passing attempts, which is smart on their part,” Medina said. “In her first match against Branford as a freshman in high school, she pretty much led the team in every statistical category outside of assists, because she doesn’t set.”
In the second set, Almond had a kill with her back to the net to give the Bobcats their first lead at 7-6. A block by sophomore Aaliyah Ray (7 kills) capped an 8-0 run and a 12-7 lead.
Santa Fe junior Karlee Noah had consecutive kills to get the Raiders within one at 12-11, and a kill by senior Delaney Wingenbach tied the set at 14-14.
Following an ace by senior Morgan Lawson, the two teams went back-and-forth on 12 straight points.
Wingenbach, who led all players with 20 kills, had a pair of kills late in the set for a 22-20 advantage, a lead the Raiders would not relinquish.
“She touches about 10’3, and she reaches really high when she hits the ball,” Marshall said. “So she literally is hitting the ball around 10 feet, so it’s hard to stop her as long as we get the ball that high. A lot of people run fast offense with her. She’s outjumping most people, so that’s why we’re not running so much speed.”
With the game tied at 1-apiece, an ace by Noah (11 service points, four aces, 19 digs) gave the Raiders a 10-9 lead in the third set and they never trailed again in the set, a 25-21 win.
Buchholz had its biggest lead at 12-7 in the fourth set, but once again the Raiders began to pull away.
Wingenbach’s kill down the left sideline tied it at 12-12. Then, later in the set, Findley took over.
Trailing 19-16, Findley had consecutive kills, including one off a deflection to get within one at 19-18. She followed with an ace to tie it at 19-19.
“I thought Brooke was incredible,” Marshall said. “Brooke is playing six rotations out of the middle, that’s hard to do. Block every ball, then go back and serve, and then play defense. We’re asking a lot of that kid. We tried to get her some rest, but we couldn’t in this match. It was too tight.”
Freshman Ajha Graddy, a transfer from P.K. Yonge, finished strong too.
Her spike tied it at 20-20 and she followed that up with consecutive kills for a 22-20 lead. She added her 10th and final kill of the night for a 23-21 advantage.
“Ajha is starting to come around,” Marshall said. “I think she, by the end of the season, is going to be really impressive. She’s getting used to the timing of the sets. She’s getting used to having to be the number one to go to in a couple of spots, so she’s getting better.”
Marshall said serving proved to be the difference.
“I think it dictates the game,” he said. “I thought they out-served us in set one. I thought we out-served them the rest of the time.”
Buchholz, which was seeking its first win against Santa Fe since 2019, may not have won the match, but they have certainly closed the gap against their Alachua County rival.
“Taylor (Sembower) had a heck of a game for them,” Marshall said. “From when we played them in the preseason to now, they’ve improved 100-fold.”
Senior Gracyn Marshall had 22 assists, and junior Ella Schneider added 14 assists for Santa Fe, which will compete in the Nike Tournament of Champions at Celebration Pointe this weekend.
The Class 4A Raiders will play defending Class 1A state champion Seacrest Country Day (Naples) at 11 a.m. on Friday, followed by Ransom Everglades (Miami) at 2:10 p.m., and Oak Hall at 3:40 p.m.
“It’s always incredible,” Marshall said of the tournament. “You know, we’re thrown for a little loop because Emarie was playing really well. I don’t have another six-foot kid on the bench, so to lose a six-foot kid and replace her with a 5’4 kid or 5’6 kid, that’s tough, but we’ve got to do it…I’m interested to see if we show some grit. I was super excited about it, and now I’m like excited but in a different way because I want to see what kind of team shows up.”
Sophomore Izzy Carter added 13 digs for Buchholz, which will host The Rock next Thursday, Sept. 4.
