By Marshall Tempest
Reporter
Last week, the Apopka boys volleyball team became the 2025 Class 3A District 4 Champions after a Cinderella run in the district tournament. The Blue Darters defeated No. 63 Windermere and No. 34 West Orange to become district champions and cement their spot in the 2025 Class 3A FHSAA Boys Volleyball State Championship Tournament.
Now, the team prepares for the state tournament, but it’s not unfamiliar ground for much of the team. Last year, the Blue Darters earned a spot in the state tournament but fell in the regional semifinal round or the second round. Apopka fell, 3-0, to the Winter Park Wildcats, who went on to win the Class 1A state title.
The team finished the regular season 6-11, and coming into the tournament, their dreams of a deep playoff run seemed farfetched. Head coach Brian Mater and assistant coach Sarah Egbers told me that when the regular season ended, a new one began. Since the tournament, Apopka hasn’t looked back, and they are on the road to glory with blinders on.
After a rough start to the season, the Blue Darters have a chance to bounce back from the 2024 campaign and the beginning of the 2025 campaign with a deep playoff run and possibly a state title. But before any of that, they will face one of the toughest programs in the country in the very first round: the Timber Creek Wolves, the No. 3 program in the state and 13th in the nation.
Apopka vs. West Orange
The Warriors were on a 12-game win streak coming into this game, and the monumental task of snapping that streak was done in just four sets. The Blue Darters took sets one, three and four 25-22, 31-29, and 25-20 while losing set two 25-18.
“It felt great to take the district title,” one of Apopka’s leaders, Logan Rogers, said. “They (West Orange) took our district title during my sophomore year, so it felt good to get them back. We had lost to them earlier this season, so getting that payback was nice.
Mater and Egbers have made it very clear to their team that they have to be perfect in every game in order to beat the teams they set up against. They said that while the team wasn’t perfect in their matchup against West Orange, Apopka found their game later in the sets.
A junior and another team leader, Caden Mcgatha, told me the win over West Orange and Windermere brought a lot of good.
“There was a lot of growth physically and mentally because a lot of us now know how to overcome adversity and be more resilient when we’re down,” Magatha said.
Magatha also told me that understanding the game’s speed is a big part of playing at the highest level. He said he and Rogers knew that speed and how to perform at the highest level. Their focus is on trying to impress upon the younger guys, or even the junior varsity guys that have been brought up, that they will get much better through experience on the court in these situations or at practice.
District tournament
Coming into the district tournament, the Blue Darters were sporting a 6-11 record but were on a two-game win streak. They were set to face Windermere first in the semifinal round of the district tournament and then West Orange in the championship round. Apopka had faced Windermere twice before that this season and lost both times (3-0, 2-1). The same thing was true with the West Orange Warriors, who had beaten Apopka 3-2 and 2-0 in the regular season.
It was easy to see that Apopka was the underdog coming into the tournament. Still, the team, including eight seniors who had dreams of a deep playoff run all season, weathered the storm. The Blue Darters defeated the Windermere Wolverines 3-2 before overcoming the Warriors 3-1 in the district championship.
“I think we had a lot more confidence in ourselves after the win over Windermere,” Magatha said. “That gave us that confidence to say, ‘Hey, we can do this,’ and we came together as a team.”
Apopka vs. Timber Creek in Regional Quarterfinal
The Wolves are coming into the state tournament ranked third in the state and 13th in the nation, sporting a 25-2 record. Timber Creek is also coming off a 3-0 loss in the Class 3A District 3 title game. They will be more than fired up to face the lowest-seeded team in the tournament and not meet a short end to their season. But Apopka also has something to prove.
Early in the regular season, Apopka faced the Wolves and fell 3-1. Apopka won the first set 25-23 but lost the next three sets 25-20, 26-24, and 25-22. Even though the team lost, it proved it could keep up with and compete against one of the best teams in the nation.
Apopka’s underdog status is nothing unfamiliar, as they had the same pattern in front of them in their games against Windermere and West Orange. In fact, Rogers and Magatha both love the underdog status. Apopka had lost to both Windermere and West Orange in the regular season but put up a fight in those losses. Now, the Blue Darters have the chance to show up once again and prove their record is not indicative of their talent.
According to the coaching staff and the players, the key to winning the game is to keep it simple, play their brand of volleyball, and limit their own errors. It’s been the same game plan all season, but coach Mater and Egbers told me that recently, the team chemistry and trust in the coaching staff have really come together.
Both Mater and Egbers attribute the recent success not only to the kids’ performance on the court but also to their effort at practice, on the sideline, and their ability to be coachable.
The Blue Darters will host Timber Creek and need the full support of the Apopka community at Joe. A. Sterling Gymnasium at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
