Seniors help Indians roll

VENICE - One of the most impressive numbers posted by the seniors on the Venice High volleyball team is 4.445.  That is the cumulative grade-point average of the Indians' six 12th-graders.  "Any time you have players who perform in the classroom, there's a really good chance they are going to work really hard in the gym," said Venice coach Brian Wheatley, whose team was the academic state championship a year ago. That's what they've done."

Jillian Allen, Taylor Capasso, Jessica Costanzo, Emily Daniels, Dorothy Rahal and Morgan Shattuck also are pretty good volleyball players, too.

Venice closed the regular season in dominating fashion with a 25-16, 25-13, 25-10 victory Thursday over Cardinal Mooney on Senior Night at the Indians gym.

Middle hitters Allen (9 kills) and Shattuck (6) pounded away against very little resistance. Rahal (18 digs) and Daniels (9 digs, 6 kills, 1 block) did the majority of their work on defense. Capasso assisted on 13 kills. Costanzo performed well defensively with three digs.

"This senior class has taken us to a new level," Wheatley said, referring to the invitation to the ASICS Classic in Chicago and the USF SunDome to play Tampa Berkeley Prep. "They've put us in the national spotlight.

"Now the real season begins," Wheatley said. "Our record now is 0-0.

"There is really one more thing for this group to do, and that's play on November 19th. I'm sorry, celebrate on November 19th."

Wheatley also gave Venice fans a glimpse of the future, going with mostly underclassmen in the final game. Autumn Duyn got most of her swings with the seniors, recording eight kills, eight digs and three aces.

Duyn, along with Brittany Burrows (team-high 4 aces), Kelly McManus (2 aces), Bianca Echtler (5 kills) Payton Herschberger (2 kills, 2 digs) and setter Danika Yoder showed the cupboard is not bare.

In a battle of district top seeds, Venice (17-8) never permitted the Cougars (17-5) to score more than three straight points in the match.

"We knew they were going to be a tough team to beat," said Cardinal Mooney coach Aiko Averill, who received nine digs from Gigi Longpre and seven from Hanna Imshaug.

"We know what we have to work on going into district."

had and halfof Venice's 40 kills came from the middle.

"It was a good day, because the girls were very relaxed," Averill said. "Normally when we play Venice, that's not the case. They didn't have a meltdown. They had fun."

Kuklova, Tighe lead

Rams to easy win

SARASOTA -- Seniors Kristina Kuklova and Danielle Tighe led Riverview High to a 25-13, 25-12, 25-22 victory over visiting Manatee High on Senior Night. Kuklova had 10 assists, five kills and three blocks while Tighe added four digs.

Riverview opens district play at home Tuesday vs. St. Petersburg.

Falcons win in 4 on Senior Night

BRADENTON -- Saint Stephen's got its 13th win in a row defeating Bayshore 25-15, 20-25, 25-21, 25-14 on Senior Night.

Senior Morgan Johnson had 12 kills and seven aces while fellow upperclassman Maggie Holbert had 43 assists giving her more than 1,800 assists on the season.

Senior Brook Cornetet had eight digs and senior Jenny Boothby had 11 service points and five digs.

The Lady Falcons (19-4) will travel to Out-of-Door Academy on Tuesday for the Class 2A-District 11 semifinals.