The George Jenkins boys volleyball team and head coach Jena Ousley knew very little about Dr. Phillips ahead of the Class 3A regional quarterfinals Tuesday at George Jenkins High School.
Even still, the Eagles went into the match willing and able to make quick adjustments. In essence, the goal for George Jenkins was finding their weakness and exploiting it. In the end, George Jenkins beat Dr. Phillips 3-1, advancing the local squad to the regional semifinals for the first time in school history.
“I am proud of my team for once again holding it together during adversity,” Ousley said.
The Eagles started out behind in the first set 24-21 due to too many errors. Still, the Eagles came back and won.
George Jenkins won the second set, playing that George Jenkins brand of volleyball.
A set later in the third, it appeared the undefeated squad relaxed and exhibited too confidence, eventually losing that set.
But this shortcoming galvanized the team before controlling the momentum and steamrolling the whole time in the fourth set.
“(It’s all about) being a role model for my team, having to show up and show out. If no one was having a good day or upset, I have to step up and poor my heart out on the court, either if it was scoring points, hyping my teammates up after a good play, or giving tips on how to win the game,” George Jenkins junior outside hitter Jacob Aca said.
George Jenkins (23-0), the No. 39 team in all of Florida and the No. 4 seed in regionals, will take on the No. 13 team in Florida and the top seed in the tournament in Freedom High School (23-5) on Friday.
“We need to work on getting all of our hitters involved and running effective offense that keeps Freedom out of the system,” Ousley said. “We will also be more aggressive with putting the ball over the net. We will need to play a close to perfect match to beat Freedom. They are a good team that will definitely challenge us and I am excited to see how my boys will do against this high level of competition. We also love an adversarial gym to play in. So we are excited for that.”
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: George Jenkins boys volleyball stays undefeated, advances to regional semis
Reporting by Robert Magobet, Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
