Tuesday evening was a great night to be a Blue Darter. The girls volleyball team traveled to Edgewater (7-12) with high spirits and came away with two victories in one night.  

Over a month ago, a home game was suspended due to slippery floors with Apopka up 2-1. The Blue Darters knew they only needed one set to add another win to their record, and they brought it. 

In the first three sets of the matchup from Aug. 28, Apopka took the first two 25-16 and 25-18, but lost the third. In the fourth, Apopka was up 20-14 when play was stopped, but the set restarted from zero on Tuesday night. 

The Blue Darters picked up right where they left off and won the set 25-18. They earned 19 points, mainly off the 13 sets from Taylor Cain and Olivia Ramos, who each had 23 and 15 assists respectively for the match. Bartkin chipped in 5 points, 4 coming off of her elite serve. Hilliman was on fire at the net with 4 kills and a block, and that was only the beginning of her incredible night. 

The final set wasn’t just a victory for Apopka—it was a load of momentum heading into their next full match, minutes later. Coach Brian Mater was pumped about how much energy the girls brought through the night. 

“As soon as we were in the building, there was a ton of energy,” he said. “The girls were having fun, they knew that first set was gonna go towards our record. They came in right away and just played with excitement. They were excited on the bench, excited on the court.” 

Ramos got the second match going in one of her best performances of the season. She had 10 assists in the set, distributing well placed balls for kills from a plethora of Blue Darters.  

Hilliman picked up where she left off, commanding the frontline with 2 kills and 2 of her 3 blocks for the match. After a late back and forth scramble in the set, the Blue Darters were able to scurry away with 4 of the last 5 points of the set to win 25-21.  

The second set was pure Blue Darter dominance. Mater labeled it as likely their best set of the season. 

“Our defense was huge, we actually earned 22 points. We earned it, and haven’t done that before,” he said. “Our errors were down to five, that’s probably the lowest amount we had all season long. And the amazing thing is, we started bringing in players that don’t always get to play. They were able to come out here and have fun” 

Madeline Sherrer and Victoria Polusmak fueled Apopka’s point party. Sherrer was a force in the middle with 6 kills, spiking balls way too hard for the Eagle blockers to stop. Victoria Polusmak was flying up the right side, pinpointing 5 kills all over the other side of the court. 

They were being set up left and right by Ramos and Cain, who had 11 and 6 assists each in the set. They never trailed in the set and won 25-15.  

The third set was a battle, but the Blue Darters dug deep to seal a 25-22 win. Mater loved seeing a different mentality in the girls when the pressure was on.  

“Even when we went down, just messing around a little bit, they still came back and fought hard and played as that team to get what they needed to,” he said. “That one time they had two or three points on us… Normally, they would freak out about being down, and the energy level would bleed out, [but] they kept it up. They played hard.” 

Six different Blue Darters had a tally in the kill column for the set. Ramos finished with an incredible 28 assists, while Hilliman rolled strong along the net with 8 kills and 3 blocks. Sherrer and Polusmak were everywhere, combining for 15 kills.  

Apopka (6-11) has two regular season matches remaining. The Blue Darters will head to Forest Lake Academy (11-4) for a rematch with the Panthers on Wednesday, followed by a Thursday match against Jones (2-12) for senior night.