In 2025, the Lake Howell boys volleyball team won its first ever State Championship.
And it felt so good, they decided to do it again.
It wasn’t quite as easy as last year, but the Silverhawks refused to let go of their title, using a couple of big rallies and a never say die attitude to bring the Class 2A State Championship trophy back to Seminole County again last Saturday (May 16) at the FHSAA Boys Volleyball State Championships at the Winter Haven Health Center on the campus of Polk State College in Winter Haven.
The SAC ended up with the split for the weekend as the Lake Brantley boys dropped a rubber match with Horizon in the Class 3A State Semifinals.
The powerful Patriots (26-4) had split a pair of regular season matches with Horizon (27-4), and while the locals were competitive, it was really all Hawks in the Thursday Semifinal as they rolled to a 3-0 sweep by the scores of 25-23, 25-18 and 25-20.
Diego Afu led Lake Brantley with eight kills and eight digs, while John Gomez-Garcia also had eight kills and Kody Mazzoni chipped in with four kills and eight digs.
Lake Howell (27-5) got off to a quick start in its semifinal with Archbishop McCarthy (20-9), winning the first set, 25-19, but the Mavericks turned the tables in the second set, evening the match at 1-1 with a 25-21 victory.
The roller-coaster match went the other way again in the third set as the Silverhawks won 25-20 to take 2-1 lead in the Best-of-5 Match.
It looked like the contest was going to go to a fifth and deciding set as Archbishop McCarthy raced out to leads of 18-8 and 22-14 before Lake Howell rallied to within 24-20, but that put the Mavericks within one point of tying up the match.
The Hawks then really came to life, winning the next four points to even the set at 24-24.
McCarthy would regain the lead at 25-24, but Lake Howell would win the final three points win the set, 27-25, and the match, 3-0, by the scores of 25-19, 21-25, 25-20 and 27-25.
Jayden Rivera led the way with 13 kills, nine digs and two blocks and he got plenty of help from Xavier Borges and Julien Rogers with nine kills each and William Colon Tyson with 18 digs.
The Championship Match with top-seeded Belen Jesuit (25-7) was not quite as exciting, as far as a decision hanging in the balance, but all three sets went to extra points with the Silverhawks winning, 3-0, by the scores of 27-25, 26-24 and 31-29.
The third set nearly saw the Champs give one away, as they had several match point serves, but then saw the Wolverines battle back to take he lead and have a couple of set points, before Lake Howell pulled out the victory.
Borges had a huge match with 14 kills, six digs, three service aces and two blocks, while Rivera had 10 kills, nine digs and three blocks and William Colon Tyson added 12 digs.
Lake Howell was led by Head Coach Dr. Scott Leman, who was assisted by Henry Shehu (Tactics and Player Development) and Manny Castro (Player Development).
The Silverhawks roster was made up of _ Seniors: Cesar Alvarado, Kason Bardsley, Shaun Bojko, Xavier Borges, Angel Jones, Kaiden Mezalon, Isaac Riedy, Jayden Rivera, Julien Rogers, Ethan Tipton; Juniors: Lucas Bodine, William Colon Tyson Alejandro Leon; Sophomores: Diego Cruz Berger and Jacob Thurston.
Lake Brantley was under direction of Head Coach Charlie Negron and he was aided by assistant coaches Alfredo Nieves and Edwin Vega and statistician Steven Winters.
Making up the Patriots roster were _ Seniors: Diego Afu, Amal Battiata, TJ Cullinan, Juan Dorta, John Gomes-Garcia, Antonio Dantas-Leblanc, Efrain L. Rivera Rodriguez; Juniors: Kaliel Caraballo, Charlie Colon, Tristan Horwath, Kody Mazzoni, Efrain L. Rivera Rodriguez, Noah Rogers, Armando Vancini, Michael Winters; and Sophomores: Carter Green.
Here are the results:
BOYS VOLLEYBALL
FHSAA State Championships
At Winter Haven Health Center, Polk State College
Class 3A
Semifinals
Thursday, May 14
Match 1 _ (3) Horizon (27-3) defeated (2) Lake Brantley (26-4), 3-0 (25-23, 25-18 and 25-20).
Class 2A
Semifinals
Friday, May 15
Match 1 _ (2) Lake Howell (26-5) defeated (3) Archbishop McCarthy (20-9), 3-1 (25-19, 21-25, 25-20 and 27-25).
Match 2 _ (1) Belen Jesuit (25-6) defeated (4) Gulf Breeze (21-6), 3-1 (25-23, 21-25, 25-18 and 25-22).
Finals
Saturday, May 16
Match 3 _ Championship: (2) Lake Howell (27-5) defeated (1) Belen Jesuit (25-7), 3-0 (27-25, 26-24 and 31-29).
