LAND O’ LAKES — For a month, nobody could take a set off the Sunlake volleyball team. On Oct. 28, with a third straight trip to the state tournament on the line, Punta Gorda Charlotte took three.
The Tarpons rallied to beat the host Seahawks 19-25, 25-22, 25-16, 23-25, 15-10 in the Class 5A region final, ending Sunlake’s season one win short of Winter Haven.
Sunlake (22-7) entered the match having won 27 straight sets, a run of nine sweeps dating to Sept. 29 that carried the Seahawks through a district title and regional wins over Palmetto Ridge and East Lake. A 25-19 win in the opening set stretched the streak to 28.
From there, little went right. Sunlake struggled to defend the back row and to keep its serves in play, and Charlotte took the next two sets 25-22 and 25-16. The Seahawks forced a fifth set with a 25-23 win in the fourth, but they had no answer for a Tarpons (22-8) defense that finished with 10 blocks and 84 digs, many of them on attacks by Sunlake star Amelia Snider.
Snider, a Syracuse commit and one of the area’s top outside hitters, had an off night at the service line but still finished her senior season with 246 kills and her four-year varsity career with 1,177.
She is one of nine seniors leaving a program that reached the state tournament the past two years. Erinn Larson finished with 174 kills (384 for her career) and a team-high 52 aces, Cailyn Barnes added 168 kills (374 career) and Olivia Grobb had 333 digs.
Eighth-year coach Elyse Garcia Zapata, who is 133-62 at Sunlake, said the loss doesn’t diminish what the group accomplished.
“Obviously the result isn’t what we wanted and the loss does sting, but that doesn’t take away from the culmination of all the hard work this group of seniors, coupled with those before them, have put in over the last few seasons,” Garcia Zapata said. “They’ve elevated the standard and the expectation of Sunlake volleyball. … Credit to Charlotte. They played with a great amount of energy and forced us into making mistakes that got them the win.”
District golf
In the Class 1A-District 6 boys tournament at Seven Springs Golf and Country Club in New Port Richey, Angeline finished fourth as a team, led by Jackson Felix’s 83. Academy at the Lakes’ Preston Yu shot a 74 to place fourth individually.
On the girls side, Academy at the Lakes finished third but did not advance to regionals as a team. Ayla Thornton led the way with a 79, good for ninth.
In the Class 3A-District 9 boys tournament at Saddlebrook Resort in Wesley Chapel, Sunlake finished sixth with a 357, three strokes ahead of Land O’ Lakes (360). Wesley Quinn led the Seahawks with an 80, good for eighth, and Sutton Hertz paced the Gators with an 88.
In the 3A-9 girls tournament, Land O’ Lakes finished sixth (424) and Sunlake eighth (440). Daniella Rodrigues shot a 102 for the Gators, and Isabella Bolomey carded a 106 for the Seahawks.
District swimming
The Sunlake girls won the Class 3A-District 5 title, and the Sunlake boys finished second. At the Class 4A-District 8 meet, the Land O’ Lakes girls placed fifth and the boys sixth.
Sophomore Payton Burton led the Sunlake girls, winning the 200-yard individual medley and teaming with Mila Adriani, Atalia Tripp and Micaela Vasquez to win the 200 medley relay and the 400 freestyle relay. Vasquez, a junior, won the 100 freestyle, and Tripp won the 100 breaststroke.
For the Sunlake boys, sophomore Evan Moses won the 100 butterfly and finished third in the 100 backstroke. He also teamed with Alex Zendegui, Jeremy Morgan and Owen Kerrigan to win the 200 relay. Morgan won the 100 breaststroke, and the same foursome, with Timur Kenzin in place of Moses, won the 400 freestyle relay.
