At the beginning of the season, the Venice High volleyball team designed their own T-shirts for the season.

After talking it out, it was simple and to the point: black T-shirt with Venice volleyball on the front and 11-19-09 on the back.

The date is significant as it is the day of the Class 5A state championship match.

The Lady Indians are just one step away after sweeping Clearwater, 25-9, 25-21, 25-23, to claim their sixth regional title and advancing to the team’s fourth state final four.

Venice (22-8) plays Tallahassee Leon (24-5) in the statesemifinals at 6 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 18 at The Lakeland Center.

This is the first time in four years that Venice has won the regional final.

“The last three years we’ve lost the regional final and we were sick of it,” said Venice senior setter Taylor Capasso. “He wanted us to think of our T-shirts because usually he makes our T-shirts. We decided as a team that was our goal to play on Nov. 19. We wanted to take that pressure. We like it.”

“This whole season has been about them,” said Venice coach Brian Wheatley. “They developed their own handbook this year so we really wanted them to take ownership in what we are doing here. They came up with that motto (on the T-shirt).”

Venice silenced the raucous Clearwater fans at the start by scoring nine of the first 10 points including eight off the serve of Autumn Duyn. The Lady Indians set the tone at the beginning as senior Morgan Shattuck got a block and two kills in three of the first five points. Senior Emily Daniels notched three kills in the scoring onslaught.

Two of the points were kept alive off digs by Capasso, who finished with a team-high 15 digs total, and senior libero Dorothy Rahal.

Venice cruised in the first game and led 19-5 at one point.

Duyn and Daniels combined for nine kills in the first game and led the Lady Indians with 10 kills each total.

“They were very overwhelmed in the first game,” said Wheatley. “That’s called the Teepee (home court advantage).”

The second game stayed tight as the teams were tied 11 times until the score reached 17-17. The Lady Indians then scored the next two points on a service error and ace by Capasso. The Lady Tornadoes (17-10) got within a point but no closer as an unforced error gave Venice a 2-0 advantage.

“Our kids just made big plays during big times in the game,” said Wheatley. “Games two and three were close all the way and we just talked about the separating the gap as the game got longer and they did.”

At 2-2 in the third game, Venice went on a 9-2 scoring run to take a 11-4 lead thanks to two kills and a block by middle hitter Jillian Allen and a block and kill by Shattuck.

Capasso was diving all over the court making digs in a variety of ways to keep points alive.

“Taylor is one of the hearts and souls of this team,” said Wheatley. “She just did a great job of running our offense.”

“Taylor made incredible digs,” said Rahal. “She was all over the place.”

“Our blockers did a great job of setting up and once the blockers are there, it’s pretty easy to read where the hitters are going to go because the blockers take away an area and you get the other area.”

Venice maintained its cushion and led 24-19 before the Lady Tornadoes scored four consecutive points to get within, 24-23. However, junior Payton Herschberger’s seventh kill of the day ended the match in 67 minutes.

After the match, Wheatley surprised the team with final four T-shirts.

“I didn’t tell anybody,” said Wheatley about the T-shirts. “It’s confidence. Life is not about the number of breaths you take but the one’s that take your breath away. This is definitely one of those moments. I’m very proud of these girls. They’ve been working very hard for a number of years. It’s very exciting to finally win the region title and get back to Lakeland.”

“I know we are not supposed to talk about winning beforehand but I already knew we were going to win,” said senior libero Dorothy Rahal. “It’s the idea that we prepare like we are in second place and we play like we are in first.

“All our kids did a great job,” said Wheatley. “They played loose and executed. We wanted Clearwater to come in and play their best match of the year because we knew we were going to do the same.”

Allen ended with five kills and two blocks. Duyn had 11 digs of the team’s 50 digs while Rahal added eight digs.

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