By: J. Daniel Pearson
Positively Osceola
A valiant fifth set comeback fell just short as the Gateway Panthers lost a heart-breaking 25-20, 26-28, 25-22, 20-25, 15-13 decision to Viera in the Class 6A, Region 2 championship match on Wednesday night.
Gateway, 22-4 overall, finished just a couple points shy of making the first FHSAA Final Four in school history. After splitting the first two sets, the Panthers fell behind in the 8-3 in the “Race to 15” fifth game.
Viera, 21-9, would eventually extend the lead to 14-8 before the Panthers staged a furious comeback. A Hawks service error, followed by two attack errors, narrowed the score to 14-11. Panthers’ freshman sensation Anaya Reyes then came up with back-to-back kills to make it 14-13 game. But after Gateway had fought off a fifth straight match point, Hawks junior outside hitter Addison Casey came up with her 27th kill of the night to secure the decisive 15th point and send Viera to next week’s 6A, Final Four.
“I am extremely proud of our season and the way this team never gave up,” Gateway coach Heidi Lizardi said. “We just fell too far behind in the fifth set. If we could have stopped their run a few points sooner or if we were able to get one more point at the end, the momentum had shifted and we might have had a chance.”
Viera, which came into the match as the number four seed in the region, had eliminated top-seeded Osceola in five sets last Saturday to set up the championship match with second-seeded Gateway.
The Hawks led for most of the first set before the Panthers staged a comeback to tie the game at 16-16. But Casey, who had six kills in the set, came up with two down the stretch and sophomore Ava Sarrat put the first set away by hammering a cross-court spike for the 25-20 win.
The Panthers used runs of five and four points midway through the second set to build a lead, but faltered down the stretch and then had to fight off two set points before ultimately prevailing 28-26 to tie the match at a set each.
Viera jumped out to an 8-3 lead in the third and stayed comfortably in front for most of the set. A late 4-0 Gateway run cut the margin 19-18 but Panther attack error followed by a Viera ace pushed the lead back to four as the Hawks held on for a three-point win.
The Panthers also found themselves behind 8-3 in the fourth set, but fought back to tie the game at 14-14, The Panthers eventually grabbed a 16-15 lead and then scored nine of the final 14 points to take a 25-20 win and knot the match and send it to a decisive fifth set.
For the match, Reyes had 24 kills and four aces. Fellow freshman Sofia Brillon-Collazo 10 kills and a couple of aces; while senior Ivana Reyes posted 10 kills.
Going into the season, Lizardi said she felt her young team was a year or two away from competing for a Final Four spot. Instead, her team — which featured three freshmen and two sophomores — came with four points of achieving that goal this season.
“This group took Gateway further than any team in school history,” Lizardi added. “It’s definitely something we can build off.”
