Cardinal Mooney volleyball falls in regional quarterfinals

A 3-0 sweep in volleyball typically implies a clear difference in the two teams. 

That wasn't the case on Tuesday night. 

That's when the Cardinal Mooney High volleyball team hosted Bishop McLaughlin Catholic for a regional quarterfinal match. In any other region, this match would have been seen in the final, not the quarterfinals, but Class 3A Region 2 isn't like other regions.

Six of the top 10 teams in the class, according to the Florida High School Athletic Association power rankings, are in the region, and the class is considered by many to be the top class in the state in terms of competition. In other words, the path through this region to the state tournament is a gauntlet. Cardinal Mooney entered the match ranked seventh in the class; Bishop McLaughlin, which is in Pasco County, entered 10th.

It wasn't Mooney's night, but it almost was. The first set was a marathon, the two teams trading blows like boxers going 10 rounds. In the end, 25 points wasn't enough to take the set; neither team could grab a two-point lead on the other. Bishop McLaughlin finally took it, 28-26, on a kill that Mooney coach Chad Davis protested as out of bounds. The officials didn't consider his plea. 

As tough as the first set was to swallow, Davis said the second was even tougher. Again, the two teams went blow for blow, but a few Mooney mistakes toward the end of the set, such as a miscommunication where no Cougars moved to set a bumped ball, were the difference. The Hurricanes won 25-23. 

"We had a chance to tie it and we made some uncharacteristic errors," Davis said. "The thing I'm proud of is it wasn't from a lack of effort."

The third set, too, was close through its first half, but when Mooney fell a few points behind, things began to slip. The Hurricanes took it 25-16 and took the match 3-0. The final point caused cheers from the Bishop McLaughlin bench and cries of sadness from the Mooney bench.  

"It was a great match between two great teams," Davis said. "I'm proud of our girls. They laid it all out on the line. They played as hard as they could. We just unfortunately fell a few points short. We've done so many great things this year when a lot of people though the program would take a step back. We surpassed last year's win total and won our district and played an incredibly difficult schedule."

As heartbreaking as the loss was, the Cougars have plenty of reasons to be excited about the future of the program. Cardinal Mooney will graduate just one senior, libero Kat Moore, and return everyone else, including star junior Jordyn Byrd, who verbally committed to Texas on Oct. 3. With his players going to their club teams this offseason, plus a majority of them playing beach volleyball in the spring, Davis is confident the Cougars will be even better in 2022. The team will have four senior leaders in Byrd, Madeline Carson, Sawyer DeYoung and Gracie Page.