2009 Top 10

LAKELAND | The Lakeland Dreadnaughts were one step away from their first state volleyball final four, but the Lithia Newsome Wolves got in their way in Saturday's Class 5A regional final.

Newsome (18-7) used its big front line and strong service game to edge Lakeland in three sets, 25-23, 30-28, 25-21, and advance to this week's FHSAA Finals at The Lakeland Center in front of about 400 fans at the LHS gym.

The Dreadnaughts would have been the first Polk County team since Lake Gibson in 1997 to make it to the final four.

"Every year we've gotten closer, and we say it at the end of every year, it's going to be our year next year," said Lakeland coach Crystal Ramsey, whose team lost in the regional semifinals last year.

The match reached its most intense point during the second set, when Lakeland rallied from down 21-17 to take a 24-23 lead. The Dreadnaughts had a chance to win the set on that point, but a kill attempt by Rachel Martin sailed just long.

Lakeland and Newsome continued to trade points until the Wolves took a 29-28 lead then closed out the set when Lakeland's Hope Andreadis hit an attack into the net.

The Dreadnaughts (20-6) fought back again in the third set from down 11-5, but Newsome pulled away from an 18-18 tie to close out the match.

Newsome only had four aces, but its servers mixed up their pace and height throughout the match and forced costly errors by the Dreadnaughts' defense.

First-year Wolves coach Kate Correa said her team's plan was to stay on the attack against Lakeland's solid defense and not give the Dreadnaughts any free balls.

"Our defense is not as tight as theirs was, so we had to block and put balls away," Correa said.

Both teams struggled to get going in the first set, hitting numerous attacks out of bounds and not receiving attacks cleanly.

Lakeland took a 22-20 lead late in that set, but a some unforced errors led to a 24-23 Newsome lead that Lauren Zellmer converted into a 25-23 victory with a strong kill through Lakeland's defense.

Ramsey adjusted her defense in the second set, inserting libero Sarah Jayne Sutton into the back row for most of the set to try to combat Newsome's attack. Lakeland also had more chances to convert on offense but couldn't win the big points when it needed.

"I'm not disappointed," Ramsey said. "Actually, I'm overwhelmed with pride to be the coach of this team."

Lauren Andersen led Lakeland with 21 assists and added nine digs, Andreadis added 10 kills and three aces and Martin had 13 kills, 10 digs and three aces.

Hillary Byrd had six kills for Newsome, Nicole Lafita had three aces and Zellmer had five kills.

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