Playoff volleyball: Seminole Ridge boys end banner season in state quarterfinals

Seminole Ridge’s wild ride to the state quarterfinals ended against unbeaten Winter Park High but not before the Hawks gave the Orlando-area powers a scare.

Seminole Ridge captured the second set, evening the match at 1-1 before Winter Park pulled away at Polk State College in Winter Haven and kept their unbeaten record intact 28-0. The final count was 25-22, 25-27, 25-19, 25-23.

Winter Park was led by 22 kills from Tristan Guitton .

Playoff boys volleyball: Seminole Ridge stuns King's Academy with sweep in region final

The Winter Park Wildcats, ranked No. 1 in the state by MaxPreps and No. 2 in the FHSAA power rankings, had posted eight straight 3-0 sweeps before Seminole Ridge gave them a run for their money.

Seminole Ridge finishes the season at 23-8. The Hawks advanced to states after a stunning region final upset over King's Academy in a sweep. The last time Seminole Ridge made states was more than 10 years ago when the Hawks won the state title.

“They’re a very good team," Seminole Ridge’s senior star Owen Holowecky said. “We played very well in the first set, played with them, and that gave us a feeling we knew we could play these guys. The second set we took it. The third set we gave it our all. But they’re a very well-balanced team and outplayed us. But we played really well.”

Holowecky, who is headed to NJIT to play volleyball, is Seminole Ridge’s leading kill man followed by Steve Barnes, the outside hitter who had 204 kills this season. That was second-highest on the Hawks.

“We came in thinking we could take a set and we could’ve taken the last set," Barnes said. “It felt good to take a set. We were hungry for the win but didn’t get it. It’s pretty exciting we took a set but we wish we could’ve done more than take one. We were underdogs."

“They went on some serving sprees," Barnes added. “And their passing was better than ours.’’

Last season was a rebuilding year for the Hawks so this postseason run was a refreshing change.

“It was a great season," Holowecky said. “Our goal was to make it back to a regional final. We did it. That was mostly our goal and we did it, came back more developed. We were happy to be at states, to be honest."

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Playoff volleyball: Seminole Ridge boys end banner season in state quarterfinals