Vero Beach volleyball stuns Jupiter in wild five-set district final
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JUPITER — Tears streamed down Vero Beach head coach Heather Magelssen's face as she took in the moment.
Assistant coach Omar Guevara tossed an iPad to the court as he rushed toward his team.
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Fighting Indians fans that made the trip down could not be blamed for any heart palpitations or sweaty palms.
The Vero Beach volleyball squad had just marched onto Jupiter's home court, fallen into an ugly hole, and scratched and clawed their way back to one of the statement victories in recent program history.
What appeared to be early signs of torturous déjà vu turned into sheer joy for Vero, who took rallied to beat Jupiter in five sets (13-25, 25-23, 25-22, 23-25, 17-15) on Thursday night.
Magelssen struggled to convey her emotions in the immediate aftermatch.
"I don't know if I can describe them," she said through tears. "I mean, we have worked. I have six seniors. They are very dear to me and they played like seniors, you know what I mean? They didn't give up and they kept playing to win and they elevated their game and they just weren't going to accept losing today — and it was a beautiful thing to watch."
It's been five weeks since Jupiter (16-8) took down Vero (13-6) in the regular season, and the beginning of the match suggested it might be business as usual for the Warriors.
Not so. Vero came to play.
Maggelsson took one look at her girls and knew that first set would not be her team's story.
"I could see it in their eyes," she said. "You know, I can tell and I just knew they were locked in and they were like, 'We're okay, we just need to sit' and that's what they kept saying, 'We just need to sit a little bit.' And that's what they did."
They sat so they could stand ... tall and mighty in the face of adversity.
Tall came in a literal sense with 6-foot-3 blocker Yahya Johnson leading her team's effort at the line in the comeback win.
The Fighting Indians gave Jupiter everything they had, pushing the Warriors to the brink by taking a 2-1 set lead. They survived a late 5-0 run by the Warriors in the second and then held strong in the third to stake themselves to an advantage.
Jupiter came through when it mattered most in the fourth set. While Vero did an effective job neutralizing senior hitter Kaija Fullerton, freshman Charlee Sawicki did her share of damage from the opposite side.
In the fifth set, the Warriors once again looked ready to clinch the match when Lille Voss stepped behind the line and spearheaded a 6-0 run for the home squad. Instead, the Fighting Indians demonstrated their namesake with yet another rally.
The game was tied 13-13, then 14-14, then 15-15. Nerves mingled with excitement on both benches, but for Vero — a a taste of anticipatory thrill hovered in the air.
The moment came, and who else but senior star and Florida commit Ella Gravlee to step to the line for the game-winning serve. The ball never made it back over the net to Vero's side.
Celebration ensued, and rightfully so. For the first time in years, a district championship loss might have meant the end of Vero's season as opposed to hitting the road for a tougher stretch of regional games.
Taking matters into their own hands, the Fighting Indians made certain that the season will live on.
"It was a total team effort, and and they did everything that we asked them to do," Magelssen said. "I'm so blessed and so proud."
Alex Peterman is a high school sports reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Vero Beach volleyball stuns Jupiter in wild five-set district final