Rays Advance to State Championships

After sweeping Evangelical Christian 3-0 on Tuesday, October 17, then being swept by reigning state champion Seacrest the following Wednesday in the district tournament, Marco Island Academy learned Saturday that they would advance to the Florida High School Athletic Association State Championships.

The sixth-seeded Rays (20-6) faced third-seeded St. John Neumann (14-9) on Tuesday night, October 24 in the regional quarterfinals at St. John Neumann, after the deadline for the Coastal Breeze News. MIA went into the Neumann game hoping to match last year’s experience of notching the program’s first-ever regional win. 

"I'm happy,” said Alyssa Stolinas, Rays head coach. "We got Neumann, it's close to home, and it'll be a good game. They've always put out a good team. We’re happy we pulled them. The girls all play club with their girls. I know the coach really well. I coach with him in club. It's going to be a friendly competition."

The winner of the MIA-Neumann game advances to the regional semifinals on Friday, October 27, against the winner of second-seeded Keswick Christian’s match against seventh-seeded All Saints’ Academy, at the gym of the higher-seeded team. Stolinas is familiar with Keswick.

“Assuming Keswick wins and we win, we'll go back to play them,” Stolinas said. "They knocked us out last year."

The Rays breezed through their conference schedule undefeated in 2023, including their conference tournament. In fact, they didn’t lose so much as a game in conference during the regular season or in the conference playoffs. 

The Rays had a relatively easy time with Evangelical Christian in their district opener, winning 25-22, 25-18, 25-13. But facing Seacrest, winners of the past two state championships, was a different story. Seacrest, with a lineup filled with NCAA Division I and Division II commits, defended their home court convincingly, 25-14, 25-17, 25-18. But Stolinas is proud of the fight she saw in her team. They now know that they can play with Seacrest. They weren’t scared.

"Oh, 1,000 percent,” Stolinas said, “every year that we have played them the frustration on my end was the girls always got scared to play them. This year they weren't scared. And that for me was a huge accomplishment. Just to see them go out there and play their game is a win for me. I think mentally we took a huge step and that's all I can ask for. At the end of the day, Seacrest should win. I mean, look at how many D1 and D2 commits they have on their team versus us. We are the underdog. I told them just go out there, have fun and play your game. And that's exactly what happened. We scored 14, 18, 19 points on them. That's a win for me. I just want to see my girls perform well. We have adjustments we have to make. We're not perfect. We had our errors. But at the end of the day, we played well. They hung with them. I told them after the game they should be proud. My girls just have to be able to go and compete. But at the end of the day, they went and they performed and that's all I can ask for."

The Rays could face Seacrest again in the regional finals on Tuesday, October 31, at 7:00 PM in the Seacrest gym if both teams advance.

"I tell my girls,” Stolinas said, "remember, Seacrest should win. But I can confidently say, the team that shows up, the team that plays, the team that fights hard is going to win. And it can go either way. So it will be a fun game for sure."