Southeast, Manatee will square off again
VENICE — They’re riddled with injuries and feeling a bit fatigued.
But they’re also one step closer toward their goal. So there were smiles aplenty on Southeast’s side of the gym Tuesday night after the Seminoles beat Bayshore 3-0 during the Class 5A-District 12 volleyball quarterfinals.
Oh, and another tidbit responsible for those grins? Southeast (18-8) will return to Venice tonight to face rival Manatee in a 5 p.m. semifinal, with the winner reaching Thursday’s championship match as well as next week’s regional playoffs.
“We’re really excited for Manatee,” said junior Katie DiGirolamo, who had seven kills and four blocks against the Bruins. “We love playing really good teams. And the better the team we play, the better we play.”
The volleyball edition of the county’s most storied rivalry has gotten a bit of a boost the last couple of years. Though Manatee has won every matchup, the Canes and Noles reached the title game of this year’s county tournament, came together to raise money for breast cancer during this month’s Volley for the Cure at Southeast — where the Seminoles took the first game — and now will meet in the district semifinals for the second straight year.
“We have more experience and more depth than we had last year,” DiGirolamo said.
First, however, they had to get by the sixth-seeded Bruins (9-17), who led Game 1 23-20 before Southeast strung together five straight points.
“We’re nursing a lot of injuries,” said coach Carmine Garofalo, adding that players such as Hannah Bartges (toe) and Amanda Garofalo (rotator cuff) had been limited in practice during the past week. “The girls were kind of slow, but they started picking it up, started playing more aggressive, more offensively, and started bringing it back together, which is what we need to do.”
Southeast won the next two matches 25-15 and 25-7.
Amanda Garofalo plunked in 4 aces to go with 12 kills and five blocks, and Alyssa Hernandez had five aces for Southeast.
Tonight, the Noles need to get past Manatee to attain their main goal — reaching the regional round.
“The girls are playing better.We’re psyched to play them,” coach Garofalo said. “We’re going to play the best we can. ... Our goal was to reach regional this year, and to get there, we have to beat Manatee.
“When you have a competitor like Manatee, they’re going to challenge you. ... You have to be ready to work.”
