Last year the Eastside High School volleyball team reached the regional final for the first time in school history. The Rams repeated the feat Tuesday night, and they found this one even more rewarding.

That’s because the Class 5A, Region 1 semifinal victim was archrival Gainesville.

“To be able to overcome the roadblock that is GHS is so significant for us,” said senior middle blocker Chloe Mann, who will sign a national letter of intent with Florida this afternoon. “We really wanted to beat them.”

In doing so, 25-19, 25-15, 25-19, Eastside (27-3) advanced to Saturday’s regional final against Tallahassee Leon (27-2) and are one victory away from the Rams’ first-ever trip to theFHSAA final four.

If it performs like it did against the Hurricanes (20-10), Eastside might have a pretty good shot at upsetting visiting Leon, ranked 100th nationally and the team that swept the Rams out of the 2007 regional final.

“I thought this was close to the best match we’ve had all around,” Eastside coach Bob Nichols said. “We were consistent everywhere.

“After our (regional) quarterfinal match last week (a 19-25, 25-17, 25-21, 25-22 victory against Fleming Island), we had a long meeting, knowing we didn’t play our best match. And we followed that up with a great week of practice.”

Mann (19 kills, seven blocks) may receive the majority of the attention, but Tuesday night’s victory - the third in four meetings this year withGHS - saw the Rams give a complete team effort.

Hitters Grace Thompson and Kathleen Coughlin combined for 15 kills and six blocks, while setter Kelsey Braley passed out 40 assists. Libero Kelsey Pace led EHS with 23 digs and 11 service points. And Shanaya Johnson pounded out the final kill of the match.

“To beat a team like GHS once is really tough,” Nichols said. “To beat them twice is unbelievable, but three times... wow, this really is sweet for us.”

Visiting GHS, meanwhile, got 13 kills from Sarah Beebe and 29 assists from Erin Maynard, but coach Cindy Boulware said the Hurricanes finished with too many hitting and blocking errors to make the match more competitive.

“We sort of pulled a no-show,” said Boulware, who has led GHS to three state titles in the last decade. “We looked tentative in Game One and never really picked things up.

“But give Eastside credit. The regional final is for the best teams, and they proved they belong.”

By This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Sun high school sports editor

www.gainesville.com