Chiles Volleyball Beats Top Ranked Gulf Breeze on the Road

On Sep. 25th, the Chiles volleyball team (20-1) played an away game against the Gulf Breeze Dolphins (18-2) in their second meeting of the season. Going into the match, Gulf Breeze was ranked #1 in the 6A class while Chiles was ranked #1 in the 5A class.

During their first meeting of the season, the Timberwolves beat the Dolphins convincingly at home in straight sets handing them their first loss of the season. Unlike their first meeting, Wednesday’s game went to a full 5 sets with the Timberwolves winning the fifth set tie-breaker by two points to give Gulf Breeze their second loss of the season.

As the first set started to come to a close, you could tell that Chiles outside hitter Lindsay Smith (Sr.) was going to play a big part in the success of the Timberwolves. Smith led the team with 26 kills on 57 attempts and 7 errors. Losing the first set by a close margin, 25-23, Gulf Breeze answered back outplaying the Timberwolves on defense, winning the second set with a score of 25-20. In what seemed like the most important set of the game, Chiles won the third set in nail-biting fashion with a final set score of 31-29. Gulf Breeze was determined to force the game into a fifth set, winning the fourth set handily with a set score of 25-16. In the fifth set, Chiles relied on star hitters Lindsay Smith and Eva Goodson to edge past Gulf Breeze, securing the win with set scores of 25-23, 20-25, 31-29, 16-25, and 15-13.

Other notable performances for the Timberwolves included Eva Goodson (Sr.) with 11 kills on 41 attempts, Sterling Carlisle (So.) with 11 kills on 45 attempts, Jorja Williams (Sr.) with 8 total blocks, Maddison Joyner with 25 digs and Natalie Gibson (Sr.) with 37 assists.