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GREG AUMANMitchell beats River Ridge for the first time in four years, but the teams likely will meet again for the district championship.
NEW PORT RICHEY - This was Wile E. Coyote catching the Road Runner, the Red Sox beating the Yankees, the Washington Generals rising up to finally beat a team that had been their own personal Globetrotters.
It took Mitchell nine tries and four years, but the Mustangs beat River Ridge on Tuesday night, handing the Royal Knights their first loss to a Pasco County opponent in nearly three years.
"It's amazing. I've been waiting for this since seventh grade," junior middle hitter Kari Wiedinger said after Mitchell's 28-26, 25-22, 18-25, 25-15 victory. "We've worked so hard, and to lose to them so close it takes a little piece of you. We get it all back when we finally win."
River Ridge (7-3) has dominated the county, with its last loss coming against Hudson on Oct. 3, 2000, though Mitchell has chipped away at the Knights' armor the past two years. It's not a changing of the guard just yet - the two teams likely will meet in a district championship game in four weeks - but the new feeling is welcome for Mustangs coach Joe Dixon.
"We're ready for the change. We want to know what it's like," said Dixon, whose team moved into a first-place tie with the Knights in the Class 5A, District 5 standings. "We're ready and we want to take the responsibility and see if we can hang onto it."
Mitchell (10-4) fought off four game points in the opening game, thwarting three on kills by senior Katelen Dixon, who finished with a match-high 24. Dixon's ace gave Mitchell its first game point at 27-26, and middle hitter Shannon Stash, who transferred from River Ridge this summer, closed it with her sixth kill.
The Mustangs won the second game, but they had taken a 2-0 lead when the teams last met on Sept. 9 only to see River Ridge rally to win the next three games. The Knights won the third game 25-18, but their comeback would end there.
Mitchell kept River Ridge alive in the fourth game, giving the Knights' four of their first five points on service errors but pulled away, ending the match on a 6-1 run. Dixon's last kill set up match point, and the Mustangs celebrated a long-awaited win when the Knights couldn't return Ashley Zappacosta's serve.
Dixon wasn't the only strong hitter for the Mustangs. Senior Tanya Ubillus had 12 kills, Stash had 11 and Wiedinger had four blocks in the middle. Tricia Thomas led the Knights with 13 kills, and Crystal Dennis added nine.
River Ridge remains atop the Sunshine Athletic Conference standings because only the first meeting counts toward that race; as for the top seed in the three-team district, if both schools beat Land O'Lakes a second time, the fifth tiebreaker (overall record) would favor River Ridge.
Either way, they likely will meet again at River Ridge at the end of the month.
"They played well, played better than us," Knights coach Heidi Castelamare said. "Our offense was a little off tonight, obviously ... We'll face them again. I told the girls the first and third count the most. The first is for conference, the third is the district championship. We have some things to work on, but if we're going to lose a match to them, it should be this one."