'I was proud': Winter Haven beach volleyball shows viable effort at state to end year
There was a difference between the mindset of Winter Haven head beach volley coach Dillon Sechrest this year and last year at the 2024 Beach Volleyball State Championships at Florida State on Friday.
Last year, there was a sense of relief to even make state. But with a year of experience under the belt, Sechrest and his Blue Devils entered the matches expecting to win at least one time.
That didn’t happen this year, though, as the Blue Devils fell to nationally ranked No. 6 Vero Beach 3-0, which is the first loss of the year for Winter Haven (14-1).
“We were excited to be up here in Tallahassee. We had a great practice yesterday once we got to Tallahassee,” Sechrest said. “The girls were excited for the moments. Feelings are a little bit bittersweet. I was proud at how hard the girls fought today. … The goal this year was to win this match and see what happens. We ended up playing a good Vero Beach team. They were solid. … But I was really, really proud of the fight that our kids showed…”
Winter Haven Beach: 'We felt in control': Winter Haven beach volleyball advances to state for the 2nd time
The fight was shown right from the get-go, too. In the first five sets in every one of the pairings, Winter Haven fell just a little bit short 21-19. At one point, it was 20-19 on every one of the matches, so if Winter Haven was able to score one more point, the score would have been 20-20, and with one more point, a respective squad would have taken the individual pairing victory.
But that didn’t happen.
Still, the No. 3 (senior Elle Floyd and junior Sadie Mcintee) and No. 5 (senior Jaidan Adams and sophomore Morgan Giles) seeds were battling tough every set. But these seeds didn’t get to finish their competitions because the other three seeds already lost.
What contributed to the loss was the fact that No. 4 seed Coryn Gilliam had to miss state because she graduated from Polk State Collegiate High School the same day.
“I don’t think we had our best stuff today from our 1s and 2s, but it definitely wasn’t because of a lack of effort. …,” Sechrest said.
Vero Beach being bigger than Winter Haven was the real reason the local bunch went down.
While Winter Haven went down and the season is effectively over, the next few years should be bright for the best beach volleyball team in the county. The No. 1 seed in sophomore Emily Drier and sophomore Kindyl Goff will be returning. And the No. 2 seed in junior Rylee Tanner and sophomore Kylie Catrett will also be back.
Departing from the program because of graduation will be senior Elle Floyd, which will be an impactful loss because she controls the ball well, and she is coachable. Her No. 3 seed pairing never lost all year. And the program will also lose the entire No. 4 seed as well as Adams from the No. 5 seed.
Gilliam will be going to St. John’s River State College in Florida for volleyball, while Adams will be journeying to Southwestern University in Texas for the sport as well.
“We’re going to have our top two seeds back next year and they’re going to be back for some blood,” Sechrest said. “…There’s not going to be a rebuild; there’s going to be a reload. Next year we're going to be dangerous.”
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Winter Haven beach volleyball shows viable effort at state to end year
