BRAT — North Okaloosa County rivals Baker and Laurel Hill met in North Escambia County on Tuesday in the semifinal round of the District 1-1A volleyball tournament.
The Gators were shooting for their 23rd consecutive playoff appearance and a 13th straight district title. The Hoboes were trying to play spoiler for the perennial power.
An upset was not in order, but Laurel Hill did make things interesting in the third set. When the dust had settled Baker’s crown might have been tilted a little, but it was still in place.
The Gators advanced to Thursday night’s final against Jay with a four-set win by scores of 25-11, 25-8, 20-25, 25-8.
“We came out in game one and game two and played really well,” Baker Coach Tommiko Parks said. “I was proud of the way the girls came out and played. Game three we had kind of a letdown and a little hiccup in our game.
“We kind of coasted a little bit, but we don’t want to coast. We want to keep our foot on the gas. We played pretty well to begin with, but we kind of had a little focus issue.”
Baker (14-10) was at its championship best in the first two sets. The only time the Gators trailed in either set was at the opening point of the match when the Hoboes (10-12) got a quick score.
Strong play by Brittany Brunson, Taylor Brunson and Emily Stewart helped Baker get off to a quick 10-5 lead in the first set. The Hoboes managed to cut the Gator lead to 14-11 before Baker closed out the set with an 11-0 run.
Jessica Black was in serve as Baker scored the last 10 points of the set.
It was more of the same in the second set as Baker jumped to an 11-1 lead and was never really threatened. Ayajah Coleman and Railey Conner helped the normal Gator offensive powers in pushing to the win.
Leading 13-5 in the third set, Baker seemed to be in control and ready to wrap up the match. But a couple of Hoboes had other ideas.
Kylee Seymour and Kaylee L’Homme played as if they weren’t ready for the season to end as Laurel Hill played what might have been its best set of the season.
The Hoboes not only made things interesting, they came all the way back outscoring Baker 20-7 down the stretch.
One set was all the Gators were going to give up. Baker went on the offensive in the fourth set and took control of things early in pulling away with the win.
Taylor Brunson filled the stat sheet of the Gators recording four aces, 23 assists, nine digs and seven kills. Stewart led the Gator attack with nine kills. Brittany Brunson had eight kills.
Ashley Black had six kills. Jessica Black had six aces and 9 digs. And Ayajah Coleman had three blocks and three kills.
L’Homme had a game-high 10 kills for Laurel Hill. Seymour added seven kills. Rachel Welsh had 11 digs.
Bailey Stokes had three aces, eight assists, three digs and 1 kill for Laurel Hill.
“I really felt like Baker played the best game I saw them play all year,” Laurel Hill Coach Kent Zessin said. “They hit the ball extremely well tonight. We did horrible job on with their serving on our serve receive early and that really killed us.
“You have to tip your hats to our girls. They never quit. They never gave up. We won a game there and got motivated and believed they could do it.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Baker advances to District 1-1A volleyball final (PHOTOS)