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Bloomingdale serves notice in district volleyball semifinals

The Bulls use 16 aces to dispatch second-seeded Brandon in three sets.
 
Volleyball teams around Tampa Bay are in action for districts this week.
Volleyball teams around Tampa Bay are in action for districts this week. [ SCOTT PURKS | Special to the Times ]
Published Oct. 16, 2019|Updated Oct. 16, 2019

BRANDON — In Tuesday’s Class 6A-12 district volleyball semifinal, third-seeded Bloomingdale came out a little timid, and tournament host Brandon took advantage, jumping to an early lead and grabbing a momentum that sent the home crowd into a frenzy.

The second-seeded Eagles led by as many as five points in that first set, thanks to early kills from outside hitter Yomaris Rodriguez and big blocks from middle hitter Mia Nettles.

Then the Bulls decided to get aggressive.

Bloomingdale outside hitter Shae Zugay had two service aces during a 4-0 Bulls run that put her team right back in the game, and that set the tone for a night of dominance at the service line as Bloomingdale recorded 16 aces in a 3-0 (25-22, 25-11, 25-22) victory against Brandon.

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“We practice a lot of serving, but sometimes it’s really rocky. It just depends on the game, how focused everybody is, the energy on the bench,” outside hitter Ellise Grizio said. “I think today, with it being a big game, everybody wanted to play really well, so we were aggressive.”

Grizio and Zugay had big kills to give Bloomingdale (11-10) the momentum late in the first set, and they continued to ride it into the second, which setter Kamelia De Jesus got off to a good start with back-to-back aces. It secured a lead Bloomingdale only built upon for the rest of a set to win handily.

De Jesus started the third set with yet another service ace, but after that, Brandon, facing the end of its season, began to fight back. The Eagles (9-4) led through the middle part of the set as Bloomingdale began to look out-of-sorts.

But as they’ve been known to do, Zugay and Grizio reeled the Bulls back in just in time.

Zugay had a couple big kills to help force a tie, and Grizio broke it wide open with three straight service aces, giving Bloomingdale a lead it would never again lose.

“They’ve been our go-tos,” Bloomingdale coach Damian Goderich said. “They are what I call my garbage trucks. Any bad pass, anything, it gets filtered to them. And they do a pretty darn good job cleaning it up for us.”

Prior to Tuesday’s game, Bloomingdale averaged four aces per set. Going aggressive in a do-or-die match paid off in a big way, Grizio said. But it’s also everything the Bulls have been through so far this season, Goderich added, that is now helping them when it matters most.

Bloomingdale came into the district semifinal with an even 10-10 record, a product of tough competition in regular-season tournaments. With the successes, Goderich said, came lessons learned.

On Tuesday, those bumps along the way began to pay off.

“I usually try and pick tournaments with better competition, higher levels. That does prepare us,” Goderich said. “Our girls are battle tested.”

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And they’ll face top seed Hillsborough, a 25-13, 25-17, 25-18 winner over East Bay, in Thursday’s 7 p.m. final.