Braden River's journey ends in final

BRADENTON - When Lauren Powell was an eighth-grader at Braden River Middle School four years ago, Braden River High's new volleyball team was something of a laughingstock.

Much as now, there was Venice and everyone else. The Pirates, who lost 60 straight games during a 0-20 season, had not quite joined "everyone else."

There was a similarly empty, but different, feeling about Saturday. Braden River was dominated by visiting Fort Myers 25-13, 25-7, 25-22 in the Class 4A-Region 3 championship and fell one match short of reaching the 4A Final Four.

But now it was Venice and Braden River, the lone area playoff survivors.

Everyone else was watching -- or so it seemed, with head coaches from at least three local schools dotting the crowd.

"You never heard anything about Braden River volleyball at all," Powell said, recalling her first memories of high school. "It wasn't a very big deal."

The Pirates (23-7) ran into a pretty big deal Saturday. The Green Wave (27-4) used Brittany Benson's 21 kills and three aces to earn its state-tournament trip in 15 years.

While Powell and fellow seniors Regina Aluise, Allison Martin and Rachel Hubbard dealt with three different head coaches in four years, Fort Myers is 100-18 during that span and reached the 5A state final in their freshman season.

"Without question, (Fort Myers was) bigger, stronger and faster," said first-year Pirates coach Steve Haugh. "If we were going to beat them, we were going to have to get close and pull out (a game) with a play or two. But no way were we going to beat a team like that.

"Not yet."

Braden River led 9-8 in the opening game, only to be buried by runs of 9-0 and 7-0. In the second, the Pirates were within 7-5 -- and Fort Myers promptly reeled off 11 straight points on Courtney Greenberg's serve.

The kills came from seemingly everywhere and everyone. Kaitlin Holm and Marissa Marazzi complimented Brinson's big day with 11 apiece. Greenberg, the setter, had a field day with 37 assists.

"We knew this could be tough," Aluise said. "It would've been an upset if we had won."

The Pirates hung tough in the third game, even taking late leads of 17-15 and 19-18, then pulling even at 22 on Powell's team-high seventh kill. But Brinson's smash from the left side, an ace by Greenberg and another Brinson wallop ended the match.

"All of them, except three or four girls, are bigger than us," said the 5-foot-6 Powell, who will likely play college softball at either Palm Beach Atlantic or Rollins. "All you had to do was look at them."

Or, as Aluise pointed out, "look at what we've done in four years -- a district title, three straight years in the regionals and three (regional) wins. All the previous coaches would say, 'We're going to build a program.' I think we've done that now."