Down two sets to none, Adriana Garcia looked defeated.
Coming off seven attacking errors in the second set, the Lions were on the cusp of elimination with their best hitter out of her groove. FBA needed Garcia, and the rest of the team, for that matter, to turn things around in a hurry.
Mission accomplished.
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The Lions (31-1) knocked out top-seeded Orangewood Christian, winning 25-27, 17-25, 25-13, 25-22, 15-13 to advance to the Wednesday, Nov. 5, Class 2A title game at 10 a.m. against Tampa Prep.
“I don’t even necessarily have words quite yet,” First Baptist coach Marci Walker said.
FBA pushed the pace early, jumping out to a 6-4 lead thanks to Natalie Burkart at the service line, who dug them out of a 4-1 hole. At 24-all in the opening set, Peyton Garrick dug out a kill attempt, getting it to land on the other side in play. After initially ruling it an FBA point, officials conferred and ruled it was Orangewood point. The Rams went on to win 27-25 after FBA leveled the match at 25-all.
Feeling the effects and the momentum shift late in the first, FBA’s second set was far from ideal, falling in an early deficit that proved to be insurmountable against a Rams team that takes advantage of errors. The Lions racked them up as a team in the second, amounting to double digits that saw Orangewood not have to work for much.
“We sort of talked as a team,” Walker said. “They’ve had a great season, but there’s a lot of people that I’m sure looked at the strength of schedule and were like, ‘Well, have they played anybody?’ They were right there in it. I told them in that first set, you’re right there in it. That second set, they fought back but they fought back a little bit late.
“You have to prove to people that you’re the team that your record shows. I more or less told the seniors, ‘Hey, you’ve got to leave everything here. If we lose and you know that you left everything here, we’re OK with that. But you don’t wanna walk away from this with regrets.'”
After Walker’s message, the third set was far from the first two for First Baptist, delivering a dominant response that had Orangewood wondering where that play was in the first two sets. The Rams were off kilter more often than not, making uncharacteristic mistakes that First Baptist capitalized on.
Then, Garcia and Maggie Adamczyk woke up.
The tandem carried the Lions on the attacking front, getting kill attempts to fall on an Orangewood block that started to run out of gas as the match progressed. Adamczyk had a huge fourth set, putting together a career game in her biggest game to date, logging a career-high 13 kills and 5 blocks. Garcia chipped in with a team-high 23 kills along with 21 digs.
“I am so proud because I know the feeling of being in the Final Four, and being nervous as a freshman,” Garcia said. “But she doesn’t act like it. I am so proud. No matter whether we were losing the first set or the third set, she had the most energy on the court and tried encouraging others.
“Watching her score, every time she went up, I knew she was going to put the ball away. It’s insane seeing someone her age have so much confidence. You’d expect nerves, but not from her. She always comes out with the most energy and confidence.”
As the fifth set played out, Orangewood continued to fight, going back and forth with multiple lead changes once the Rams came back from two down to tie the match at 8-all. FBA would get a pair of points to go back up 10-8 thanks to a service error and a backdoor kill in the back corner from Trinity McCormick, who finished with 8 kills, 52 assists, and 16 digs.
The Rams refused to go away, going on a 3-0 run that started on a Laila Stewart service error. Kennedy Langmo followed it up with a kill off the block of Adamczyk and McCormick and then got another with a bloop kill that went off the diving hand of Stewart.
Out of the timeout, Garcia went to work with a back row attack, with Langmo answering with an emphatic kill to reclaim a 12-11 lead. The senior answered Langmo’s hand with back-to-back kills to go up 13-12. Grayce Wilder took advantage of a tip at the net to go up 14-12, before Garcia closed it out with her hardest kill of the night down the line off the set from McCormick to send the Lions to their second state title game in program history.
“It was insane,” Garcia said. “That was something I kept saying afterwards. I was in shock, because it was a reverse sweep, and I’ve never done that. There was a lot of emotions and nerves. Feeling-wise, it was the most insane game I’ve played.
“We poured our hearts out, and you could tell in the end we had so much heart going into the third set, fourth set, and then we brought it into the fifth. Even though it was close, we never gave up no matter what.”
For First Baptist, Burkart added 12 kills and 15 digs. Garrick tallied 38 digs, with Stewart adding 24 from the defensive specialist position.
Orangewood (26-5) left Monday’s game wondering what could’ve been, especially without freshman star Ellie Enger (303 kills, 343 assists) missing the match. Enger was training with Team USA in Colorado Springs for the U17 Continental Championship, which will take place in Costa Rica starting Tuesday, Nov. 4.
The Lions will have a chance to become just the second team in Collier County to win a state title, taking on a Terrapins team that handled Divine Savior 25-21, 25-20, 25-10 in the other semifinal.
Follow Sports Reporter Alex Martin on X: @NP_AlexMartin. For the best sports coverage in Southwest Florida, follow @newspresssports and @ndnprepzone on Instagram.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: First Baptist volleyball rallies past top-seed Orangewood Christian to reach Class 2A final
Reporting by Alex Martin, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Naples Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
