Two teams remain in regional volleyball competition, and both will hit the road Tuesday for their championship matches.
Palm Beach Gardens will travel to Weston-Cypress Bay Tuesday for a Class 9A regional championship match. The winner advances to the state semifinals. (Andres Leiva/Palm Beach Post)
Palm Beach Gardens, coming off a sweep of Spanish River in their Class 9A regional semifinals matchup, travels to Weston-Cypress Bay; while King’s Academy, which beat Oxbridge Academy in a five-set thriller, plays at Tampa-Berkeley Prep.
The winners of those matches advance to the state semifinals Saturday.
Below is our preview. Both matches will be played Tuesday at 7 p.m.:
Class 9A
Palm Beach Gardens (24-1) at Weston-Cypress Bay (19-5): The Gators enter the regional finals on a roll, having won 21 straight matches. Of those, 19 have come by sweep, including Thursday’s 25-13, 25-16, 25-10 win over Spanish River in the regional semifinals. Middle blocker Maddie Anderson – an FSU beach commit – had 16 kills in that match, and has anchored a Palm Beach Gardens lineup that is solid from top to bottom. The Gators will face a test on the road against the Lightning, who went undefeated in district play and have won 12 of their past 13 matches. Cypress Bay advanced to the regional finals last year before falling to eventual state champion Boca Raton.
Prediction: Palm Beach Gardens in four
Class 5A
King’s Academy (25-0) at Tampa-Berkeley Prep (27-2): The Lions and their veteran lineup have been dominant this season, winning 19 of their 25 matches by sweep. The only teams to take a set against King’s this year have been Benjamin (a Class 4A state semifinalist), Suncoast (a Class 6A regional semifinalist), and Oxbridge Academy, a Class 5A regional semifinalist who took the Lions to five sets in all three of their matches this season. King’s Academy will have another battle on its hands against the Buccaneers, a perennial volleyball power whose two losses this season have come to out-of-state teams. Berkeley Prep is a 2013 and 2015 state semifinalist in Class 4A.
Prediction: Berkeley Prep in five
