Latest Venice Volleyball

Rested Indians put it together in win over Fort Myers

Wednesday, 21 October 2009 00:00 Written by Dennis Maffezzoli

VENICE - The sign on the door Thursday at the Venice High gym read "Volleyball practice cancelled." Same for Friday. "We really didn't know what to think," senior setter Taylor Capasso said. "We didn't know what was going on. We all thought he went a little crazy." Crazy like a fox.

Indians coach Brian Wheatley had a good reason for not practicing. Actually, two reasons. "We wanted to reevaluate what we are doing as a team and what we want to accomplish, get that laser focus back," Wheatley said. "And we are going into our second half of the season, and we want fresh legs."

In one of its best all-around matches of the season, Venice handed Fort Myers its fourth loss in 24 matches with a 25-16, 27-29, 26-24, 25-16 victory in the penultimate match of the regular season Tuesday at the Indians gym.

"We recharged ourselves," Capasso said. "We were ready to go."

Wheatley addressed the mini-break at Monday's practice.

"It was high intensity, just like tonight," Capasso said of Monday's session. "We talked about how we need to practice how we play. Now we are starting to practice with intensity."

With libero Dorothy Rahal (season-high 33 digs), Emily Daniels (19 digs) and Autumn Duyn (17 digs) manning the back line, the Indians (16-8) kept the same defensive tenacity as they had in a four-game loss Wednesday at Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas.

"Aquinas was probably our best defensive match of the year," Wheatley said after the trio combined for 69 of the team's 93 digs. "This was right up there with it. It sparks the offense."

Throw in the three-game victory over Charlotte in Punta Gorda, and the Indians were coming off two lackluster offensive performances after returning from Chicago, where they finished eighth in the ASICS Challenge.

"We didn't play well against St. Thomas," Capasso said. "Our defense was awesome, but our offense just wasn't there against St. Thomas. We came in Monday and worked hard on both."

Tuesday, Venice added the offense.

Duyn (20 kills), Daniels (14 kills), Jillian Allen (11 kills) and Payton Herschberger (7 kills) all received ample opportunities to swing, thanks to Capasso evenly distributing the ball.

"I was trying to get everyone involved, keep them guessing," Capasso said. "We're finally putting it together."

"She had Fort Myers off balance," Wheatley said.

Venice failed to put the Green Wave away in the second game, despite three game points.

The Indians came back with a clutch performance in Game 3, when Duyn had two kills to break a 24-24 deadlock.

The Indians never trailed in the fourth game.

"Our middles are doing a great job of transitioning and being the decoy we need to open up the outsides," Wheatley said. "And we're swinging."

Duyn (3 aces) and Rahal (2 aces) also took their swings from the service stripe, where Venice notched eight aces.

If there was one area of concern, the Indians made 11 service errors.

The Indians will practice today in preparation for the regular season finale Thursday at home against Cardinal Mooney on Senior Night.

Next week, top-seeded Venice will be home for the Class 5A-District 10 tournament.

The Indians will play the winner of Saturday's match between fifth-seeded Manatee and fourth-seeded Charlotte at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Also Tuesday, third-seeded Port Charlotte will visit second-seeded Naples Gulf Coast in the other semifinal.

The district final is Oct. 29.

"We're peaking at the right moment," Capasso said. "Coach Wheatley said we want to peak at the end of the season."

"This is the most important part of our season coming up," Wheatley said. "We are successful when we have a clear mind, focused and playing point by point."

That little break appeared to have helped.

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