Sometimes before practice starts, Tampa Prep volleyball coach Andrew Wilson puts a score of 15-9 up on the board above his players’ heads, his way of reminding the Terrapins how their season ended last year in a five-set region final loss to Orlando First Academy.
But if you ask outside hitter Corey Perkins, she and her teammates don’t need to look at the scoreboard to remember that match. Those six points, she said, continue to haunt them.
The season is still young, but the Terrapins already are looking forward to a rematch.
“Of course we have to play all our games leading up to that, but I think our main focus this year is First Academy,” Perkins said. “We know that’s what it takes.”
Last season was the fifth straight year the Terrapins’ season ended at the hands of the Royals, who went on to win the state championship four times in that span. The last three of those meetings were 3-0 decisions in the region final.
For a team that has won 15 state volleyball titles — tying Tampa Prep with rival Berkeley Prep for number of championships — the drought stings.
This time around, though, the Terrapins have the odds, and experience, in their favor.
Tampa Prep returned five of six starters from last year’s region finalist team, including Perkins, one of the county’s top hitters. Joining her is outside hitter Ariana Mosley, who totaled 152 kills in 2013, and libero Claire Blumenthal, a South Carolina commit.
“We just have more experience, and that experience transfers to more energy on the court,” Mosley said. “We’re just playing with more confidence, and we’re not as timid.”
That showed for Tampa Prep (6-0) last weekend in the annual Academy of the Holy Names tournament. Eight of the best teams in Hillsborough County, including 2013 state semifinalists Berkeley Prep, Steinbrenner and Robinson, competed, and the Terrapins cruised past their opponents to meet Bloomingdale in the championship game.
Tampa Prep took the first set, 25-23, but in the second, the Bulls handed the Terrapins their first set loss of the season, winning 25-18.
Last year, his team would have panicked, and it would have shown on the court, Wilson said. So late in the second set, the third-year coach called a timeout to make sure the Terrapins’ heads were right.
Less than an hour later, Tampa Prep won the final point of the weekend in the decisive third set to take the crown.
“They were just calm,” Wilson said, “and that was the best part.”
The experience was a confidence booster, Mosley admits, but they’re refusing to let the early success get to them. After all, they’ve got a streak to break — First Academy’s — and a banner to add to the gymnasium rafters.
For so long, the Royals have been representative of failure for a Tampa Prep team that gets close, but just not close enough. Still, the Terrapins aren’t shying away from the possibility of seeing their rival again in the postseason.
In fact, they embrace it.
“We want to beat them,” said Mosley, Perkins nodding beside her in agreement. “It’s definitely on our list.”
Contact Kelly Parsons at kaparsons@tampabay.com. Follow @_kellyparsons.