There may not have been a local team that walked away with the first-place trophy at the conclusion of the Gator Town Classic on Saturday afternoon, but the event proved the area remains one of the best for competitive volleyball in the state.

The champion was Tampa Berkeley Prep, which is ranked 59th nationally by prepvolleyball.com. The Buccaneers won a hard-fought title match against 2007 champ Venice, 26-24, 22-25, 22-25, 25-19, 16-14 at Lincoln Middle School.

Berkeley Prep actually was behind 12-8 in the fifth game and had it cut to 12-9 when setter/outside hitter Mackenzie Dagostino injured her ankle when she landed on the foot of a Venice player that unintentionally slid under the net (a violation that made the score 12-10). With her out, the Buccaneers rallied to win six of the next eight points and the title.

"Fantastic volleyball," P.K. Yonge coach Perry McDonald said.

McDonald was quite the happy man as the event concluded.

His Blue Wave had just topped Jensen Beach in four games to take home third place in the 16-team field. They were a 25-18, 25-12, 22-25, 21-25, 15-10 loss to Berkeley Prep in the semifinals from playing for the championship.

"I'm extremely pleased," McDonald said. "If someone had told me before we started (Friday) that we would finish third in this tremendous field, I would have said I would definitely take it."

Berkeley Prep is a potential Class 3A finals opponent for P.K. Yonge. However, to get to that point the Blue Wave likely would have to get past four-time defending state champion Orlando Lake Highland Prep in regionals.

And even though LHP did not play in the Gator Town Classic, the Blue Wave did advance further than Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas which lost to LHP in five sets last week (after squandering a 2-0 lead).

McDonald agreed that while Lake Highland and Berkeley remain in the upper echelon of teams in the state, the gap might be closer than in recent seasons.

"The whole pack is nipping at their heels," said McDonald, who added he thought Oak Hall and Eastside also had really good showings in the tournament. "Those at the top don't seem as far away as a few years ago."

Also giving Berkeley a great match in the Classic was defending FHSAA Class 6A state champion Buchholz, which lost a 23-25, 27-25, 16-14 thriller Friday (first day contests were best-of-3). The Bobcats recovered from that defeat to place fifth, winning the silver bracket.

Berkeley's Christina Theofilos was named the event's MVP. She was joined on the all-tournament team by Eastside's Chloe Mann, Oak Hall's Erika Davies, Buchholz's Nicki Meyer, St. Thomas Aquinas's Stephanie Zielinski, P.K. Yonge's Collyn Welsh, Jensen Beach's Sarah Wickstrom, BP's Jordan Burgess, and the Venice duo of Emily Daniels and Jillian Allen.

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Sun high school sports editor