Volleyball: Undersized Gulf Breeze overpowered in regional semifinal loss to Ponte Vedra

Being the area's best volleyball team pretty much year in and year out can be as much a curse as much as it is a gift.

Ripping through its competition this year, Gulf Breeze easily claimed its fifth consecutive district title and stacked up enough victories to earn the top seed in Region 1-6A.

However, the Dolphins are susceptible to issues when facing a quality opponent from a deeper part of the state. That was the case on Saturday, when they ran into a battle-tested program with a state-championship pedigree, a massive size advantage and featured a player that loomed as an intimidating presence.

Gulf Breeze's season came to an end after falling in five sets to Ponte Vedra in a Region 1-6A semifinal at Gulf Breeze High School.

Set scores were 25-22, 14-25, 25-20, 19-25, 15-7 in favor of the Sharks.

Regional quarterfinals: Top-seeded Gulf Breeze fends off Mosley, Washington, Navarre eliminated

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"Still a little shocked, but I'm not disappointed in them at all. I still think we battled and we fought," Gulf Breeze head coach Jasmine King said. "Obviously, if you are going to lose, you want to go to a fifth-set match. You want it to be a battle and I think we did that. But I just hate it, I hate for these girls."

The Dolphins end 2023 with a 23-3 record after seeing its 14-game winning streak come to a close. Ponte Vedra, the fifth seed in the region, moves on to play No. 2 Chiles in a regional final on Wednesday.

The Sharks came into Saturday's match with just 14-13 record, but they owned the sixth-hardest strength-of-schedule across all classes in the state. The District 3-6A champions defeated Tallahassee Leon in five sets in the regional quarterfinals.

Now, with its upset of Gulf Breeze, Ponte Vedra is one win away from its seventh Final Four appearance in nine years. The team won state titles in 2017, 2019 and 2020.

"I'm not a big numbers guy, but I really set (the players) up to play some of the hardest teams all year long," Sharks head coach John Goings said. "And they've just learned and slowly kept getting better and better because we were playing that great competition. It's really on their backs, they're the ones shining right now. ... It's been fun to watch them mature as players and young, fine athletes coming up into their own."

There wasn't a finer athlete on the floor than senior middle blocker Chelsea Sutton. The 6-foot-4 senior, who is committed to play at the University of Tennessee, was force both offensively and defensively, finishing with team-highs of 18 kills and seven blocks.

Her booming kill and an emphatic block on back-to-back plays gave the visitors a 5-1 advantage early in the fifth. The teams traded points until a Sutton ace put the Sharks ahead 8-3. Gulf Breeze scored the next point, but would not get closer as point kills from sophomore outside hitter Leah Grall and Paige Murphy allowed Ponte Vedra to seize control.

Fittingly, the senior delivered the final blow of the evening, smacking down a quick attack into open space in the middle of the Dolphins defense.

It was the first time Gulf Breeze has dropped three sets in a match all season. The team's previous losses came in tournaments where matches were best of three.

Here are three takeaways from Saturday's match.

Dolphins caught 'off-guard'

One team looked comfortable in the fifth set while the other seemed a step off.

Gulf Breeze just was unable to get to balls that it had fought and clawed for earlier in the night. Struggling to make clean digs, the team's offense was impacted as the amount of threatening attacks dwindled.

According to the Dolphins head coach, her players "just couldn't get into a rhythm."

Ponte Vedra improved to 4-2 in matches that went the distance this season. Meanwhile, the Dolphins had not played a five-set contest since the team's reverse sweep against Mosley in a 2022 regional semifinal. Only three players that participated in that game played on Saturday.

"The newcomers I think did really well while being put to the test, but I feel like it was a new experience for them," senior setter Riley Bloomberg said. "So having to put everything out there and keep fighting no matter what was something they really haven't had to deal with as much, even though they did step up."

"There's nothing you can do in practice to replicate or put them in that kind of pressure unless they are in it," King remarked. "Being our first five-setter (this season) and it being a regional semifinal, there's a lot of pressure there, but we're young."

Therein lies the conundrum.

Gulf Breeze's previous two losses in 2023 each came against Alabama squads. Twenty of the team's 23 wins were via sweep, with most of those matches coming against local programs.

So unless the Dolphins can schedule more competition outside of the Panhandle, the problem of being unprepared for talented, more-seasoned teams may persist.

"I think at the end of the day we still had a great match, but I think it's tough," King said. "Being in the area and the position, we always have good seasons and win 20 matches, but we're just not challenged, consistently. Teams that we get to see in regionals are seeing tough teams on the regular. For us, we play good volleyball, we sweep everybody, but we get to these big dogs who have had to battle all year and it catches us off-guard."

'Damper on the mood'

Chelsea Sutton wasn't the only Shark with size. Standing at 6-3, 6-1 and 6-1, respectively, Morgan Sutton, Ryan Murphy and Haydin Froehlich all posed issues at the net.

Froehlich and Morgan Sutton capped the opening set by combining for one team's five blocks in the first. The Sharks were limited to one block in the second as Bloomberg and fellow senior setter Aubrey Tylavsky were excellent in making quick, concise passes to junior outside hitter Bella Satterwhite and sophomore right-side hitter Estelle Reese.

"When you are playing a wall, we tried to speed our offense up a little bit to make them a little late on their block," King said. "We tried to keep the ball away from them sometimes. We have great middles, but when you're up against a 6-3 to 6-4 block, you almost want to use them as decoys and have them be really loud and pull really hard to hope to get a one-on-one block on the pin."

Two mega blocks late shut down the Dolphins' chances in the third. They were on the verge of tying the set, but Morgan Sutton's stuff put the road team up 21-19. Later, then after a Gulf Breeze timeout, Chelsea Sutton had a rejection of her own to make it 24-20.

"Going in against this team where they have two really tall middle blockers, it's not scary, but when they get those stuff blocks, it can be a damper on the mood," Bloomberg said. "Something, we were like, 'it's fine, we can come back,' and sometimes it did put a damper on the mood and I think that's what got us."

Chelsea Sutton's impact at the net went beyond her defense.

Ponte Vedra went to her in stretches for numerous spikes on quick attacks. She also provided a change of pace with several savvy tips to keep the Dolphins off-balance. And in moments when Gulf Breeze shifted in preparation for one of the senior's monstrous spikes, the Sharks used her as a decoy.

Ava Grail benefitted, as the senior outside hitter had 16 kills.

'5,000 positive things'

The Dolphins will lose four seniors to graduation in Bloomberg, Tylavsky, outside hitter Addisyn Tolbert and outside hitter Kennedy Miller.

Bloomberg's time representing Gulf Breeze as a volleyball player is not over, as she is a star on the school's beach volleyball team, but the senior reflected on her years playing on the hardwood.

"I really loved being a Dolphin, especially because we're always out there with the most energy," she said. "Also, we're classy. We make sure we're never rude to the opponent and we're trying to be the best people we can be on and off the court. I really think that's what it means to be a Dolphin."

With most of the players back in the fold, King has plenty to look forward to the following season. But when reflecting on the season that was, the head coach was emotional.

"We lost four really incredible seniors, but we're really, really young and we're going to be returning most of our starters. That's a positive to take out of it," King said.

"I know we're not ending it on a not-so-positive day, but we had 5,000 positive things and 5 million memories that came from this season and only two or three bad ones. Overall, it was a really positive season and I'm just proud of them and I'm proud to be their coach."

Friday

Region 1-1A Semifinal

No. 2 Chipley 3, No. 3 Jay 0

With Gulf Breeze's exit, there are no more Pensacola-area teams left in the 2023 state playoffs. On night before, the Royals bowed out following a three-set road loss to the Tigers.

Set scores were 25-22, 25-22 and 25-20 in favor of Chipley, who moves to play top-seeded Baker in the regional finals.

Stats were unavailable.

Jay finishes the season at 16-8.

Patrick Bernadeau is a sports reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. He can be reached at (772) 985-9692, on X at @PatBernadeau or via email at pbernadeau@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Volleyball: Gulf Breeze outlasted by Ponte Vedra, bows out in region semis