First Baptist and Seacrest played in regional finals on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. Here’s coverage of both matches.
REGION 1A-3
Seacrest 3, Keswick Christian 0
What is largely considered a huge accomplishment for any program has become clockwork for the Seacrest Country Day volleyball team.
Five straight years and five straight Final Four appearances.
The Stingrays (5-23) are headed to Winter Haven once again for the Class 1A state semifinals beating Keswick Christian 25-9, 25-11, 25-18.
“We talked a lot about staying focused and working hard from the beginning all the way through the end,” Seacrest coach Andy Wimmer said. “We talk a lot about taking care of ourselves and working and doing our jobs first. And whatever the other team’s going to throw at us, we’ll adjust when we need to. We build at the net. That’s where our game starts, and we play defense behind. We’ve had two goals all year: to improve every day and to be playing our best volleyball at the end of the year.
“This was a game that we did not take lightly or take for granted, and said that we’re going to work hard and get better today and with such a young team, we can’t take any days off. We stayed focused, worked hard and tried to get better, and I feel like we did.”
It was a hot start for the home side, serving very aggressively behind Anasofia Lopez, who dished out four consecutive aces in the latter half of the set. Sophie Fong was also hot early for Seacrest, converting on her first five kill attempts as Wimmer’s vision of team volleyball was evident all night long.
Keswick (16-13) came out swinging in the second set, jumping out to a 4-0 lead before Seacrest roared back with a 10-2 run. Kendall Creech, Alexa Hicks, and Reese Milner all finished with multiple blocks in the match, as the Crusaders struggled to get any clean looks over a team featuring seven girls north of 5-foot-10.
“We build at the net,” Wimmer said. “That’s where our game starts, and we play defense behind. We’ve had two goals all year: to improve every day and to be playing our best volleyball at the end of the year.”
Sophia Baron warmed up during the second half of the second set until the final whistle, converting seven consecutive kill attempts. Baron tallied a team-high 14 kills, followed by Fong’s 11, Milner’s 7, and Maria Gorlatova’s 3. Hicks racked up 30 assists, while Harper Campins had 15 digs, followed by Baron with 7, and Fong and Gorlatova with 6.
The fight from Keswick was evident in the third set, winning lengthy rallies and forcing Seacrest to work a little bit harder. That was good for a team that’s set to be in a competitive Final Four alongside Boca Raton Christian, Harvest Community, and St. Edward’s.
“I am superstitious, but I haven’t talked to anyone about it,” Wimmer said. “We don’t talk about anything but the next day, the next steps. The only conversation I had with them at the beginning of the season is banners. How many can we put up? And since then, we have not talked about anything like that. We focus on the job in front of us, and now we can start thinking about states and we’re getting ready for that.
“I was actually just talking one of the parents who was just booking the rooms down because we can’t think that far ahead. I can’t get the team thinking about that. It takes our focus off on what it needs to be.”
− Alex Martin
REGION 2A-3
First Baptist 3, Holy Trinity Episcopal 0
In a raucous environment at First Baptist Academy, the volleyball team gave the fans in the Lion’s Den something to cheer about.
Led by Adriana Garcia and Natalie Burkart, the FBA beat District 2A-10 champion Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy in three sets, 25-18, 25-19, 25-14, to clinch the Region 2A-3 championship and a state final four berth.
The Lions excelled in almost all phases on the floor, but First Baptist coach Marci Walker said it’s their teamwork that led FBA to the region title.
“It’s been a great team effort all year long,” Walker said. “I’m excited to see what we can do going forward. Everybody has stepped up at the same time. So we don’t usually rely on just one or two players. We do a good job of not putting pressure on any one person out there.”
The Lions (30-1) advance to the state semifinal at Polk State College in Winter Haven on Monday. This will be the Lions’ fifth trip to the state final four. They also made it in 2017, 2018, 2020, and last fall. The 2017 club made the state final and finished as the state runner-up.
“We were just focused and we worked really hard,” Burkart said. “We wanted to play for each other. This is what we’ve focused on all season, so now we are super-excited. We didn’t focus on the other team. We focused on our side of the net so that we could do what we needed to do.”
Garcia led FBA with 14 kills, and Maddie Johnessee had 11 kills. Peyton Garrick had 15 digs and Burkart had nine.
In the first set, the Lions pulled away late with excellent offense. With the score tied at 11-11, Garcia served up two points and a minute later Maggie Adamczyk came up with four straight to give FBA a 18-12 lead. From there, with some timely digs and kills from Johnessee, FBA put it away.
“The key in the first set was to get jitters out. We got settled in and we figured out, ‘We can do this,’” Walker said. “We were a little hesitant at first, but I just told them that if we play well, we’ll do well.”
In the second set, the Lions got off to a 9-2 lead. But the Tigers (17-9) crept to within 14-11 before the Lions regrouped for the win.
“We did a good job of staying on track in the second set,” Walker said. “Trinity (McCormick) usually does a great job in moving the ball around. We relaxed a little bit in the middle of the game. But then we finished strong. We stayed consistent. We have a good mix of young and old on the team. No one puts pressure on one another – we just come out and play.
“I think the seniors felt it a little bit tonight and were more emotional,” Walker said. “They thought, ‘Hey, it’s our last game at home.’”
In the final set, Burkart sparked FBA with four straight service points to give the Lions a 10-3 lead, and the team was on cruise control to Winter Haven from there.
− Tom Corwin
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Two for Winter Haven as FBA, Seacrest volleyball punch tickets to state final four
Reporting by Alex Martin, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Naples Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
