The St. Thomas Aquinas girls beach volleyball team had to overcome a lot of adversity and chaos at this weekend’s FHSAA state tournament at the Florida State University beach volleyball courts in Tallahassee.
The tournament was forced to delay matches and eventually had to finish on Mother’s Day, one day later than originally scheduled, due to extreme weather conditions.
St. Thomas coach David Palm said two EF2 tornadoes touched down within a mile of the Raiders’ team hotel on Friday, forcing them to change plans. Their Friday morning game was pushed back to later that evening. They then were able to get in their morning match on Saturday before the semifinals and finals were moved to Sunday.
“We were supposed to play at 11 a.m. on Friday and we wake up around 7 and the wind is blowing and blasting, and the power is out,” Palm said by phone. “We got the outer bands. It’s dark and pitch black, so we gather all of the girls from the hotel and bring them to the lobby. We just hung out there, and slowly but surely they canceled the games and then they projected it might happen, so we squeezed in one that night and the next one on Saturday.
“They pushed the semifinals and finals to Sunday, which created another problem because it was Mother’s Day and the FHSAA generally doesn’t play games on Sundays,” Palm continued. “We were trying to calm down the parents because they were saying, “it’s Mother’s Day, we can’t,” and then we had to get special permission and a one-time exception from the Archdiocese to play on Sunday because we are a private, Catholic school.”
St. Thomas Aquinas (19-1) opened the tournament with 3-1 wins over Merritt Island and Vero Beach before falling 3-1 in the state semifinals to the eventual champion and nation’s No. 2 ranked Gulf Breeze (22-0) in a matchup of undefeated teams. It was the best finish for the Raiders who had bowed out in the first round at state the past two years.
Seniors Zoe Taylor and Zsa Zsa Ferguson picked up the lone point for the Raiders at line 1 against the Dolphins. They did so in dramatic fashion. After losing the first game, 21-19, Taylor and Ferguson rallied to take the second game 21-18. Leading 14-13 in the tiebreaker, Ferguson, using all of her 5-foot, 4-inch frame, dug the ball out to give the Raiders the point.
“It was an amazing feeling for us,” said Taylor, an LSU signee, who along with Ferguson finished 20-0 at line 1 for the season. “We were super excited and had a lot of confidence going in. I think we played well the entire tournament, and I am just proud of us. We knew going in that Gulf Breeze was a good team.”
“It was a huge release when I got that point,” said Ferguson, a University of Louisiana-Monroe signee. “I just try and hustle as hard as I can for every point.”
“I am going to remember the culture that the team had,” added Raiders senior Kristi Talocka, who played line 2 with sophomore Emily Rosinsky. “I’ll also remember the friendships and the desire to push to win.”
Dwyer (12-2) edged Cardinal Mooney (Sarasota) 3-2 in their first-round match at the state tournament before getting tripped up 3-0 by Tampa Berkeley Prep in the quarterfinals.
“It was awesome to get the first win and move into the state quarterfinals,” said Panthers coach Eric Tenlen, whose team was making its state tourney debut. “I thought we could get there. That was one of the goals at the beginning of the year. We just kept pushing. It was amazing.”
The Panthers were led all season by the line 1 play of senior Sam Kepple and sophomore Corinne Cabrera.
