By Matt Mauney | Associate Editor
Two area volleyball teams have punched their tickets to regionals.
Plant City and Strawberry Crest both reached that goal Tuesday, as they won their matches in separate district tournaments.
Plant City had a longer path to get there, as the No. 4 seed in the Class 7A District 8 tournament, held at Brandon High. The Lady Raiders defeated Tampa Bay Tech 3-0 (25-23, 25-10, 25-10) Monday to advance to the semifinals. Alex Arnold and Noelle Dietrich each had 12 kills in the win, while Kelly Drake had 30 assists.
Plant City then clinched a regional tournament spot Tuesday with another 3-0 win, this time over Hillsborough.
“I couldn’t be happier with the way we played,” said head coach Jessica Thornton after Tuesday’s game. “Our goal this season is to advance as far as possible in the postseason, and this win makes that a reality for us.”
Drake had 24 assists in the Hillsborough win, while Arnold led the team with 14 kills. Danielle Rodriguez had 13 digs for the Lady Raiders.
Plant City now will face Riverview at 7 p.m. tonight, at Brandon High for the district championship.
“We’ll have to play pretty near perfect if we want to win,” Thornton said about the Lady Sharks, who finished the regular season a perfect 5-0 in district play.
Plant City fell to Riverview Aug. 18, at home but managed to get a game from them, losing 3-1.
“We’ve gotten much better as a team since then,” Thornton said.
Strawberry Crest took a different route to the Class 6A District 11 finals. The Lady Chargers finished the regular season undefeated in the district and took the No. 1 seed into the tournament, held at King High in Tampa.
The Lady Chargers only needed one win to clinch a regionals spot, and they got that Tuesday with a 3-0 win (27-25, 25-10, 25-15) over Armwood. Freshman Terra Brooks had 19 kills in the match, while Briana Sanchez had 33 assists.
Strawberry Crest now will face off against No. 2 seed Sickles for the district championship at 7 p.m. Thursday, at King High. Sickles gave SCHS its best district match of the regular season Oct. 3, as the Lady Chargers dropped the first two games before winning the next two and the tie-breaker for the 3-2 win.
Durant High School picked up a win Tuesday as well in its first match of the Class 8A District 7 tournament, which the Lady Cougars hosted.
Durant, the No. 4 seed in the tournament, defeated Newsome 3-0 Tuesday.
“This was the third time we played Newsome this season, so we knew that they were going to come in here wanting to beat us, but we just came out really focused and made good adjustments as the game went on,” Durant head coach Brittany Wilson said after Tuesday’s win.
The Lady Cougars faced Wharton Wednesday night and fell 3-2, ending Durant’s season at 12-5 overall.
Follow @PlantCitySports on Twitter for updates on all area volleyball matches.
Contact Matt Mauney at mmauney@plantcityobserver.com. “>http://nrussu.com/srochnie-onlayn-zaymi-v-internete.php
