Bobcats best rival Hurricanes in volleyball

It doesn’t matter the sport when Buchholz and Gainesville High teams get together, and Tuesday night that intense rivalry met on the volleyball court at Bud Seymour Gymnasium.

Although the visiting Hurricanes were right there against the Bobcats, when the third set fell after missing out on two set points, Gainesville’s drive seemed to waver.

And the result, Buchholz pulled out a 3-1 victory — 25-23, 20-25, 26-24, 25-10 — for its fifth straight win on the season.

Sophomore Izzy Sanchez had 40 assists and junior Kennedy Wade had 16 kills to lead the Bobcats (5-1), who opened the season with a 3-2 loss at Ocala Forest after leading 2-0. Senior Anna Tosolini had 10 kills and three blocks and senior Nohe Nossa, a former Hurricane, had 11 digs.

“It is always a tough match when we go against GHS,” said first year coach Enrique Wiseman. “The rivalry is pretty intense.

“I think our girls really needed to settle in and play our side of the net. Once we did that ... of course gaining the momentum in the third helped us to get that — we settled into our our game in the fourth set.”

With the match tied after the two schools split the first two sets, the Hurricanes (3-3) led by five at 21-16, and had its first set point at 24-22. But a big kill from Wade closed the gap to one, and the Bobcats tied it at 24-all.

Another kill from Wade gave Buchholz set point, which it won on a Hurricane error.

With a 2-1 lead in the match, and the Hurricanes coming so close to taking the lead, GHS didn’t pose much of a fight in set four as the Bobcats went on a 6-0 run early and never looked back.

“I think the score in the fourth set made it obvious (deflating the team),” said Gainesville first year coach Paqui Peon. “Unfortunate tendencies is that we don’t have the mental fortitude at the end of close sets to make the plays to win.

“I’m still proud of our effort. It is a competitive match every year between GHS and Buchholz. There is a lot of passion on both sides of the court from players and spectators. I thought we did pretty good in handling that. We just had some mental breakdowns that cost us.”

The Hurricanes were led by four seniors. Kyleigh Beecham had 29 assists and eight service points; Melissa Brown had 10 kills, eight digs and eight service points; Tiffany Reccoppa had 11 kills, 10 digs and two blocks; and Sarah Berto had 17 digs and six service points.

GHS plays at unbeaten and District 4-7A rival Ocala Forest on Wednesday. Buchholz hosts District 4-8A rival Bartram Trail, also unbeaten, on Thursday.

“We beat them twice last year, and they beat us when it counted the most in the regional finals,” Wiseman said of Bartram Trail. “That is definitely a match we have circled since the beginning of the year.

“We know we have to play our best volleyball the entire match.”