Orangewood Christian advances to state volleyball semifinals

Orangewood Christian is the last Seminole County team standing in the FHSAA Girls Volleyball state tournament.

The Rams have secured a spot in the state semifinals after finishing first in their Open Division pool. They are the only team from the county to reach this stage of the championship.

Nine teams from Seminole County originally qualified for the regional rounds. That number dropped to three after early eliminations. The Geneva School was the final county team to fall out on October 24. Top-seeded St. Edward’s beat The Geneva 3-0 in the Class 1A Region 2 Semifinals. The set scores were 25-16, 25-22, and 25-21.

Defending state champion Oviedo also exited the tournament on October 28. The Lions lost the Class 6A Region 1 final to top-seeded DeLand. DeLand won the match 3-2. The set scores were 23-25, 25-21, 22-25, 25-17, and 17-15. Oviedo had led 14-11 in the deciding set. A serve hit the net but crossed over to give DeLand a 14-12 lead. DeLand won the final six points to close out the game.

Orangewood Christian entered the Open Division as the No. 4 ranked team in the country according to MaxPreps. The Rams were undefeated against Florida schools this season. Their only two losses came against teams from California that were ranked No. 1 and No. 2 at the time. Those games were played in a tournament in Las Vegas.

The Rams won their pool by defeating all three opponents. They beat Pinecrest-Gulliver Prep 3-1 on October 21 and October 24. They defeated Alachua-Santa Fe 3-1 on October 24. In the final pool match on October 28, Orangewood Christian beat Winter Park 3-0. The set scores were 25-16, 25-14, and 25-19. Winter Park is the defending Class 7A state champion.

Head coach Diane Lang collected her 800th career victory in the win over Winter Park. This was her 37th season of coaching. The Rams will face Tampa-Plant in the state semifinals. The match is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Friday, November 6 at the Winter Haven Health Center on the campus of Polk State College.

The other semifinal match will feature Winter Park against Clearwater-Calvary Christian. That game starts at 4 p.m. on the same day. The winners of both matches will play in the final on Saturday, November 7 at 7 p.m.