Braden River advances to first-ever region final

BRADENTON - For the third time this season St. Petersburg Lakewood High had the best player on the volleyball court, but Braden River High showed it was the better team.

The host Pirates overcame 26 kills by Lakewood's nationally touted Berkley Whaley and defeated the Lady Spartans 3-1 Tuesday night in the Class 4A-Region 3 semifinal to advance to Saturday's region championship match.

Braden River (23-6) lost the first game to Lakewood 25-21 but rebounded to win 25-17, 25-19 and 25-22. The Pirates lost the first game in all three of their matches with the Spartans, including the district title game on the Spartans' home court when they won in five.

The victory sends the Braden River team to its first region championship match. It will host Fort Myers High on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Whaley is a 6-foot-plus sophomore who has been offered a volleyball scholarship to the University of Florida and is considered one top players nationally. But the Pirates showed volleyball is not a one-person sport.

They got arguably a career-best performance by sophomore Brittany Jaco, who led the team with 17 kills. Veteran senior Lauren Powell had 13 kills, Kaleigh Jaco had nine and Allison Martin was credited with eight. They all got a big boost from Gina Aluise, who had 51 assists.

"Our girls did a tremendous job. That team is always going to be tough with Berkley on the other side," Braden River head coach Steve Haugh said. "We wanted to make her work for everything and I think we did a good job of that. The better team finally won the match. We played them three times and beat them all three times."

The goal for Braden River was to win the first game, but Lakewood foiled those plans. The Spartans trailed 16-14 and outscored the Pirates 9-1 to put the game away. Whaley had five kills in that spree.

"We told ourselves after the first game that this had happened before and we would be all right if we just stayed focused," Haugh said. "A key to our season is that our back row players are very good and consistent.

"We don't have big crushing hitters so we have to rely on speed and quick hits and attack the ball in the right place."

Braden River jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the second game and never looked back.

The Pirates broke a 6-6 deadlock in the third game and put together a 15-5 run to pull away. They led throughout the final game.

"It's definitely tough to beat a team three times because you know each other so well and we've been talking about that all week," Powell said. "They knew how we hit, where we set up and how we play defense and we just told ourselves we wouldn't let up.

"Berkley is really tough to play against. She is a great athlete."