Season on line for several teams

Tuesday, November 03, 2009
by Cristina Ledra

There was much talk during the 9-6A District volleyball tournament that whoever made it out as the two playoff teams would probably go far in the post-season.

Starting today, Boca Raton (18-6) and Jupiter (19-8), and all other teams who made it out of their districts, will fight for their playoff lives in the regional quarterfinals.

The competition the teams in 9-6A had during their required district games was more than most other teams in the region had. And any tournaments they added to their post-season preparation.

Boca Raton and Jupiter were the top seeds in their divisions of the nine-team district that in included Park Vista, Royal Palm Beach and Palm Beach Central.

Boca Raton, the district champion, will play host to Coral Springs (13-9), which came back from two games down to Deerfield Beach to win its district semifinal match before losing to Parkland-Douglas (16-6) in the final.

Coral Springs is led by Molly Furch, who is third in Broward in assists; Taylor Ruiz, who is fourth in Broward in kills; and Lauren Lewkowicz, who is 10th in Broward in service points.

Jupiter goes to Douglas, which swept Coral Springs-Taravella in the district semifinals before sweeping Coral Springs for its eighth straight district championship.

Aline Valiengo is sixth in Broward County in assists for Douglas.

If Jupiter and Boca should both win, they would face each other for a third time this season. They split two meetings.

In Class 5A, Spanish River hosts Davie-Nova (17-5), which lost in the district final to perennial power St. Thomas Aquinas. Cassie Thompson is eighth in Broward County in service points for Nova and Kayla Upham is second in Broward in digs.

Spanish River (19-7) beat a young Wellington team in three close games and has been pretty steady all season. Three of the Sharks' seven losses this season came to Martin County, Jensen Beach, and Lake Worth Christian, which were No. 1, 2 and 3 in the Post's Top 10 from the season's beginning to end.

Wellington (20-5) gets the tough match up with St. Thomas Aquinas (20-3).