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Venice's season ends in regional final but future looks bright |
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Saturday, 15 November 2008 20:51 |
VENICE - The mood was not upbeat but it far from downtrodden either after Venice’s season ended on Saturday afternoon in the Class 5A-Region 3 final. The Lady Indians, who have no seniors, know the best is yet to come despite losing in four games to two-time defending state champion Tampa Plant, 25-13, 23-25, 25-15, 25-15, at Venice High.
The Lady Panthers (27-3), who are ranked No. 19 in the nation by PrepVolleyball.com, will play Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas (24-5) in the Class 5A state semifinal on Nov. 21 at The Lakeland Center.
Venice’s season ends with a 22-9 record. Of the nine losses, six were to teams are playing in state semifinals.
“I thought we battled for a rebuilding year,” Venice head coach Brian Wheatley said. “We battled hard and we just lost to a better team tonight. No doubt about it. The best team should represent our region and they are the best team in our region.”
This is the third straight year, the Lady Panthers, who have won 12 straight matches, eliminated Venice with the last two in the regional final.
“Like the Rays manager Joe Maddon said, ‘this is just the beginning for this team, ’ ” Wheatley said. “It’s a happy day. It’s just the beginning. I’m not saying goodbye to any seniors. We took it far. With our schedule we had to make it to the Elite Eight in the toughest class in the state. We did great. The kids played great all year long.”
“Most of them are sad and crying or depressed for a couple of weeks or so,” Venice junior Dorothy Rahal said. “From my point of view, we played a great season and had a great game. We are a young team. Next year is a new day.”
Venice fell behind early in the first game and unforced errors were costly. The Lady Indians, who had eight unforced errors in the game, trailed 14-10 but got no closer as seniors Jordan Dickie and Ariel Ley combined for eight kills and two blocks.
“When you do make a mistake against a team like this it exponentially hurts you because they are going to come right back at you,” Wheatley said.
Rahal and the rest of the Lady Indians picked up their game in the second game as the teams were tied 17 times.
Trailing 23-22, Venice junior Jillian Allen pounded down a kill to force a 23-23 tie then Plant hit the ball out of bounds giving Venice game point. The Lady Panthers were called for a backrow violation tying the match at one game each.
In the second game, Rahal had five of her team-high15 kills.
“We weren’t seeing the ball as well as we should have in the first game,” Wheatley said. “We made a couple of adjustments. We really got a lot of touches (in the second game). Their hitting percentage in first game was astronomical. We knew we had to bring that percentage down.”
“We just controlled our errors,” Plant head coach Leanna Taylor said. “That game two it was point, point, point. We didn’t get any good runs in there. We had some errors. We just really settled down and took control and tried to minimize our mistakes.”
In the final two games, Venice had no answer for senior Danielle Erb, who committed to James Madison University, or 6-foot-2 junior Maddie Martin, who verbally committed early to top-ranked and defending national champion Penn State University.
Erb finished with 20 kills while Martin had 13 kills.
The Lady Panthers spread the ball around as three other players - Leah Jordan, Ley and Dickie - finished with 12, 11 and 10 kills each.
The third game was tied at 5-5 but that was the final time it was as Plant went on a 15-5 run to grab a 20-10 cushion.
“We played a great game they’re just the better team,” Rahal said. “They deserved it.”
Both teams showed off their defenses as Emily Daniels, Autumn Duyn, Rahal and Taylor Capasso had 18, 16, 14 and 14 digs each. For Plant, libero Ali McCurdy was constantly digging balls and keeping plays alive.
“All we wanted to do as a team this year is have an opportunity to win each game and each match and even farther to get a chance to go to Lakeland,” Wheatley said. “For a rebuilding year, our kids fought hard. This team has come so far in three months it’s unbelievable.”
Daniels and Allen had eight kills each for the Lady Indians while Capasso had 25 assists.
“Need to get ready for next year,” Rahal said. “For me it starts tomorrow.”
Perry D. Pentz is Sportsota.com's senior writer. He can be reached via e-mail at
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