State Bound!
Boys, Girls qualify for second straight year
Maybe it was a bit of revenge or was it just Seminole Girls Water Polo at its finest.
The Noles girls continued their legacy of dominance using a stout defense and timely scoring to beat Winter Park 5-3 in the FHSAA Regional Finals to advance to their third straight State Final-Four and the fourth in the past five years.
But a little over and hour later, Seminole made history when the boys downed Oviedo 13-10 to advance for the second consecutive year.
“It’s a pretty cool feeling,” said Seminole coach Ryan Ackerson. “It’s something we felt we could do this year.”
This marks just the fourth time in FHSAA Water Polo history both a boys and girls team from the same school have qualified for the State Final-Four at the same time. The last time was 2009 when St. Andrews send both its teams to the tournament.
Ackerson added with the tough region Seminole is in, he wasn’t overlooking the fact that this was no easy win for his top-ranked girls’ team over the third-ranked Wildcats.
“I think they are a very strong team, it’s too bad this game had to be here instead of Miami,” the fifth-year coach said. “But I think playing in our region, there are so many good girls teams it helps us get stronger. Every time we play one of them.”
Against the Wildcats, playing four quarters of solid defense, the girls were led by goalie Julia Pando with 8 saves, and a steal. Gabby Pierson and Raelynn Bouley had 2 steals each.
Headed to Miami, Ackerson realizes his girls are going to be the team to beat as the top-ranked team with one loss in two years.
“We’ve had a target on our back since the start of last year,” he said. “The teams from the other regionals are going to be hungry to beat us down there.”
Winter Park only team to beat Seminole in the past two years.
For the boys, Mircea Timofti had 3 assists and a steal in the Noles 13-10 win over Oviedo.
Becton Suber and Luc LeRoy had 2 assists and Ethan Pierson had 12 saves in the win.
“They’re doing a good job of slowing the ball down, and that’s been a goal all season” Ackerson said. “We keep the game slow and then take advantage of the counterattack.”
