Telegraph Staff Writer
Keystone Heights High School made the Region 1-4A volleyball playoffs as an at-large team, but the sixth-seeded Indians were no match for third seed South Walton, which recorded a 3-0 (25-11, 25-13, 25-13) quarterfinal win on Oct. 25 in Santa Rosa Beach.
The Seahawks (16-10) led from start to finish in the first and third sets and trailed only twice in the early stages of the second set.
South Walton scored 10 of the first 13 points in the opening set and later scored five straight with Jordyn Swift serving to go up 23-8. The Seahawks would eventually win on an error.
A tip by Kaitlin Brown to start the second set gave Keystone (17-8) its first lead of the match at 1-0. The Indians took advantage of a couple of errors with Kadence Carlton serving to go up 4-3, but a kill by South Walton’s Camryn Halstead tied the score and forced side-out. The Seahawks then scored eight points with Madeline Smith to go up 12-4.
South Walton led 18-11 before scoring five points with Swift serving. Smith had four kills during that span before the Indians’ Kiersten Shaw knocked down a kill to force side-out. It was later 24-13 in favor of the Seahawks when a kill by Smith gave them the set win.
The Seahawks scored the first five points of the third set and scored three points with Swift serving to go up 9-2. Keystone would get blocks and kills from Riley Barry and Sarah Siebert, but the Indians couldn’t cut into the South Walton lead.
Swift ended the match with a kill to send the Seahawks to the semifinals on Friday, Oct. 28.
Stats weren’t available by deadline.
