Apopka came out swinging Tuesday night, but once Timber Creek found its rhythm, the Wolves never looked back. Behind a breakout performance from freshman outside hitter Nora Kretchman, Timber Creek stormed past the Blue Darters 3–0 (25-17, 25-14, 25-15) in a non-district matchup. 

The opening set belonged to Apopka early. Senior middle blocker Daylen Hilliman fired off back-to-back kills to put the Blue Darters in front, while senior setter Olivia Ramos helped extend the lead to 15-10 spreading out a few quick assists. Timber Creek looked flat to start, struggling with errors and burning an early timeout. 

That pause changed everything. Timber Creek senior setter Valerie Yambao took over from the service line, delivering two assists and an ace during a run that cut Apopka’s lead to one. Kretchman followed with back-to-back kills, capturing all the momentum for the Wolves.  

Yambao served through a 10-0 stretch that completely flipped the set, and junior middle blocker Juliet Carabao closed it out with consecutive aces for a 25-17 win. 

Timber Creek carried that energy into the second set, racing out to an 8-1 lead fueled by five Yambao assists. Going back to set 1, the Wolves were on a 23-3 run to this point, and the Wolves’ front line continued to dictate play.  

Kretchman soared for seven kills in the set, while Carabao and junior right side hitter Natalia Rodriguez added a few more points at the net. Apopka clawed back briefly with kills from Hilliman and sophomore outside hitter Kiana Napier, but the Wolves answered every rally on their way to a 25-14 win. 

The Blue Darters refused to fold in the third. Senior libero Sydney Bartkin landed two aces, and senior outside hitter Brianna Young notched a kill to spark a 6-2 lead. But once again, Timber Creek steadied, going on a 6-2 run of its own to tie it at 8-8.  

The Wolves continued their run as senior libero Alanis Hernandez fueled a service run with two aces, and Kretchman slammed home four more kills to push the lead to 18-12. From there, Timber Creek coasted to a 25-15 clincher, with Kretchman finishing off points both at the net and from the service line. 

Kretchman led all players with 19 kills and a block. As a freshman, she looked like a veteran on varsity with how strong and clean her kills were. Also for Timber Creek, Yambao orchestrated the offense with 16 assists and two aces. Carabao chipped in 3 kills, 2 blocks, and 4 aces, and Rodriguez added 5 kills and 2 assists.  

For Apopka, Hilliman paced the attack with 7 kills, while playing strong defense at the net with 4 blocks. Ramos recorded 10 assists while junior Taylor Cain had 9 with 4 digs.  Despite the loss, Coach Brian Mater said his team can’t point to fatigue from playing on consecutive nights. 

“Is it tiring to play back-to-back? Sure. But at the end of the day, we should be conditioned enough to be able to play two, three nights in a row at a high caliber,” Mater said. “I don’t want to use that as an excuse. To lose back-to-back like that, I’m disappointed.” 

Instead, Mater pointed to fundamentals that need sharpening. 

“We could not receive serves for anything tonight… I’ve seen one of our stats for game three on our errors, 15 errors again. Our errors are killing us,” Mater said. “So it’s back to the basics. We need to condition harder, swing better, and block better. When our blocking is working, you can see it makes a difference. But when we stopped blocking, it really hurt us.” 

The Blue Darters (1-3) look to get back on track in their third game of the week Thursday night, at home against the Edgewater Eagles (2-3).