Barron Collier volleyball cruises past Freedom in regional opener

NAPLES, FLORIDA -- The Barron Collier volleyball team's goal is to finish strong.

After an underwhelming start to Wednesday's Class 5A-Region 3 quarterfinal, that's exactly what the Cougars did.

Barron Collier, the No. 1 seed in the region, found itself tied with No. 8 Tampa-Freedom halfway through the first set. It was a wake-up call for the heavily favored Cougars, who last week won their 13th straight district championship.

From there, Barron Collier (16-5) was its regular dominant self. The Cougars cruised to a 25-16, 25-7, 25-10 victory.

"We finally got our energy up and started playing to our level," Barron Collier setter Ava Zehnder said. "I think we underestimated (Freedom) and brought our level down. But then we finally played to our level and brought it back up."

The defending regional champion Cougars took an early lead as expected. But after Barron Collier was up 8-3, Freedom fought back and tied the game 12-12.

The Patriots (10-5) scored just 21 points over the final two and a half sets.

"It's difficult when they're overconfident," Barron Collier coach Yamil Del Ville said. "We've been working on that. Right now it's win or your season is over, and we've got to understand that. So far, they've been doing good and stepping up when we need it."

With the win, the Cougars advance to the regional semifinals for the 11th straight season. They'll host No. 4 seed St. Petersburg at 7 p.m. Saturday. St. Petersburg beat No. 5 North Fort Myers 25-16, 25-18, 25-19 on Wednesday.

There will be three regional semifinal games involving Collier County teams this weekend. Seacrest will host the Tampa Bay HEAT in Class 2A-Region 3 on Friday. Also on Saturday night, Gulf Coast will play on the road at Tampa-Plant in 7A-Region 3.

Barron Collier features two of the best attackers in Southwest Florida in Keira Kruk (193 kills this season) and Kendra Pruitt (179). However, the Cougars found their spark Wednesday with their serving.

Pruitt and Charlotte Mongin had aces early in the second set as Barron Collier build a 15-3 lead. The Cougars scored seven straight points to put the set away behind the serving of Zehnder, who recorded four aces in that span.

Zehnder then started the third set with an ace as the Cougars jumped out to an 11-2 lead. Ashley Giraldo was serving as Barron Collier ripped off 10 straight points midway through the set to grab an insurmountable lead.

"We did really good on serving, which is something we've been working on, and finishing the set and not letting up," Zehnder said.

Freedom's season comes to an end after the Patriots entered the game on a hot streak. They had won five of their previous six matches, including two in the district tournament to claim the title. Despite being district champion, Freedom had to play on the road in the regional quarterfinals because of its weaker strength of schedule.