St. Petersburg makes it four straight over Largo

ST. PETERSBURG — It was no surprise that the Class 6A, District 6 final came down to top seed St. Petersburg and second seed Largo. Both teams were district champions last season (different classes) and were clearly the two best teams in this revamped district.

It’s also not surprising that the match was highly competitive. This was the fourth meeting between the schools this season, and the previous three went the distance. The Green Devils beat the Packers for the fourth time, 25-13, 26-28, 25-21, 25-13.

St. Petersburg (24-3) has earned a home match in the region quarterfinals on Wednesday. Largo (13-11) will have to wait to see if it earns an at-large bid when the brackets are announced Sunday night.

“Largo has always pushed us,” St. Petersburg junior setter Nicole Robison said. “We knew we had to focus. We knew what we had to do and I’m proud of us for pulling it off.”

St. Petersburg beat Largo in five sets in the regular season. It also won a PCAC match in three sets and a tournament match in three sets. The way this match started it looked like the Green Devils would sweep.

St. Petersburg broke open a close first set by scoring seven of eight points to take a 16-9 lead. Largo cut it to three points, then the Green Devils scored the final nine of the set to take a 1-0 lead. Livvi Harting served out the set and Jordan Bruce had two kills.

Largo did not go away.

The Packers, behind outside hitters Brook Brown and Alexa Albinson, were steady throughout in helping take a 20-14 lead. The Green Devils chipped away and took a 24-22 lead after an ace by Kate Youmans and a kill by Robison. But Largo scored three straight on an Albinson kill and two St. Petersburg errors to go ahead 25-24.

The Green Devils had a 26-25 lead, but an errant serve and two Albinson kills ended the set and tied the match at 1-1.

“We made a lot of errors in the second but I told them that is over,” St. Petersburg coach Joe Abad said. “We had to clean it up. We did that.”

St. Petersburg held the lead for most of the third set. Largo cut it to 21-19, but the Green Devils scored four of the next six.

That seemed to deflate Largo. St. Petersburg jumped out to a 13-5 fourth-set lead and was never pressured after that. Robison had two straight aces to put the set, and the match, away.

“We want to be pushed, to see if we can handle the pressure,” Abad said. “In years past, we’ve always been the underdog. Winning districts last year, everybody was expecting us to win it this year. That’s new to the girls, being the ones everyone is gunning for.”

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After the match, coach Amy Clark took pictures with her six seniors, just in case this was their last match.

“It’s a wait-and-see kind of game,” Clark said. "It’s a little frustrating. We look at this new (playoff) system and it doesn’t make much sense. We made it to the district final but there is a potential that we don’t make it but other teams that lost in the semis do make it.

“It was a great game. They never gave up. I might be their last game so I didn’t want them to have any regrets.”