Trinity Catholic sweeps St. John Lutheran

As both teams prepare for district tournaments, Trinity Catholic and St. John Lutheran met for the second time this season.

The first match in August went five sets, but Tuesday night’s clash saw Trinity Catholic earn a hard-fought sweep by scores of 25-23, 25-20 and 25-15. The win improved the Class 2A Celtics to 13-3 on the season.

“We saw St. John the first match of the year at their place, it went five sets and was a great environment,” said Trinity Catholic coach Jeff Reavis. “We’ve had a pretty good season thus far, and we’ve really learned a lot about ourselves. We have some youth out there and it’s fun to watch them learn and grow.”

The loss dropped Class 1A St. John to 9-6 overall.

“Trinity Catholic is an outstanding team that plays really good defense,” said Saints coach Brad Ewers. “We were right there the first two sets and had a shot to win them but missed a couple of plays. The challenge of playing a team like Trinity Catholic will only help us the rest of the season.”

The first set was tied eight times, the last at 16-16 before Trinity Catholic went on a 6-0 run sparked by several kills from sophomore outside hitter Ashlyn Hallick and a kill and a block by sophomore middle blocker Addyson Avery.

St. John clawed its way back within 23-22 as senior outside hitter Rylee Palmateer blasted three of her team-high 10 kills. Trinity Catholic regrouped and closed out the set behind back-to-back spikes by Hallick.

The Celtics, with momentum and the home crowd on their side, jumped out to a 12-6 lead in the second set as junior outside hitter Maddie Hewitson had three of her match-high 12 kills and Avery added a pair of well-placed shots.

St. John kept fighting and closed within 20-16 as senior outside hitter Sophia Ochoa drilled a pair of spikes to go with a block and Palmateer added back-to-back kills for the Saints.

The Celtics kept their composure and finished off the set behind a block by Riley Murray, a kill and a block by sophomore Emily Reed and a pair of perfectly placed shots by Hewitson to take a commanding 2-0 lead.

The loss seemed to delate the Saints and Trinity Catholic took full advantage by storming out to a 13-3 lead in the final set as sophomore Libero Lyla Huggins had four aces and Avery and Reed found the range with kill shots.

St. John made one last run as Palmateer and Ochoa scored several points to pull the Saints within 23-15. But Trinity Catholic finished with a flourish as junior Hannah Williams had back-to-back service aces to close out the match.

“We enjoy playing against Trinity Catholic and this kind of competition is only going to make us better as we get ready for the postseason,” coach Ewers said.

Trinity Catholic is a work in progress and the Celtics were supposed to play in a tournament in Venice this weekend, but it was canceled because of the impending hurricane.

“This is the fourth time in eight years that we’ve had to miss this tournament because of a hurricane,” coach Reavis said. “We lose five quality matches at the end of the season which is a bummer. We don’t have time to make them up since the district tournament is coming up.”

The Celtics will host Forest on Oct. 1, while St. John will be at home against Gainesville Eastside.