By: J. Daniel Pearson
It was the Jordin Southall show on Tuesday night as the Osceola Kowboys rolled to their fifth straight win on the season – taking down county rival and previously undefeated Harmony in straight sets, 25-19, 25-14, 25-11.
Southall came up huge in the first set, recording eight kills in leading the Kowboys to a six-point win. Osceola was ahead comfortably for most of the set, but a 4-0 Harmony mini-run cut the gap to five at 21-16. But Southall came up with back-to-back kills to make it 23-16 and Osceola held on for the win.
In the second set, Southall would spur another run with back-to-back service aces as Osceola raced out to a 12-5 lead. Junior Cate Palmi would have a solid set with five kills as the Lady Kowboys stayed comfortably ahead for entire set. That allowed Osceola coach Carrie Palmi to substitute players liberally in the set.
“The flow of this match allowed us to play a lot of players,” Coach Carrie Palmi said. “The backups work just as hard as the starters do in practice, so it’s always good when you can get them meaningful playing time and keep them engaged in matches.”
It was the Southall show in the final set.
The outside hitter had five early kills in the set, with the last one tying the set up at 11-11. From there, she went back to the line and served out the match as Osceola scored 14 straight points. Southall had five aces during the run.
“We spent a lot of time in practice on serves. When you are able to drive the ball deep and low off the serve, you might not get always get an ace but teams may have to spend their second touch just keeping the ball in play,” Palmi said. “It makes it extremely difficult to set up their offense when that happens.”
For the contest, Southall finished the match with a team-high 17 kills and seven aces. Cate Palmi added 10 kills and junior Sophie Spivey had five kills and a block. Sam Vickers led the Longhorns with 10 kills as Harmony (4-1) lost for the first time this season.
With the win, Osceola has not lost a set and is now 4-0 against county opposition having defeated Celebration, Gateway, Tohopekaliga and the Longhorns. They will be big favorites to win their third consecutive Orange Belt Conference Championship when that tournament is held Sept. 30-Oct. 3.
Before than tournament, however, Osceola could face challenges in the immediate future. The Kowboys will play on the road Wednesday night against a solid Windermere (8-4) team; before returning home next Tuesday for a big match against Hagerty. Although the Huskies are only 3-4 this season, they have played a tough schedule and are ranked 10th in the state in Class 7A according to MaxPreps. The teams last faced each other in the Class 7A Final Four with Hagerty winning 3-2 on Osceola home court to reach the state championship match.
