JACKSONVILLE - With an astounding 48 defensive digs against arguably one of the best volleyball hitters in Florida, Ridgeview High senior defensive specialist Sydney Little used a recent knockout punch to ready herself for Thursday's epic showdown. The epic showdown was a 3-2 win for Ridgeview (now 15-6, Fifth in 5A) against the top-ranked in 2A Trinity Christian Academy Conquerors (now 20-3, ranked third in 3A, 11th All Classes).

"The last time we played, in the final of the JJVA championship tournament (2-0 September 16), she (Trinity Christian's Amaria King) literally knocked me out with one of her strikes," said Little, who had just three errors on 36 service digs. "Coach Steven (Ridgeview coach Steven Henry) went through a series of hard shots that he sent at me to be mentally prepared. I guess it worked."

Statistically, in the 2-0 loss to Trinity, Little registered just 13 digs against 16 kills from King.

"We had two choices; keep the ball away from here (King), or be ready for her when she it," said Henry. "We kind of knew her tendencies to go cross court and every time she went up for a kill, Sydney was going to be in her line of sight."

King, a junior for Trinity Christian, had amassed an unchallenged 352 kill scores before the Ridgeview match and last put a ballistic show on against Middleburg in a 3-1 win over the Lady Broncos a week ago.

In the 5A rankings, though, as of October 5, Middleburg is still ranked number one with Ridgeview number five as district tournaments are set to begin. Middleburg and Ridgeview are in the same district with Middleburg beating Ridgeview in last year's district championship.

King, back to the Ridgeview game, has accrued season totals of 458 and 407 kills in her freshman and sophomore seasons leading Trinity to season finishes of 25-4 (3A region finalist) and 20-10.

"She is the best in this area by far," said Henry, noting her recent commitment to play at Marquette University when she is done at Trinity."

For her effort, Little took some advice from her dad.

"He said, no matter what happens, keep getting up and keep looking at her to let her know you will be right in front of her all night," said Little. "There was one point in the game that she looked me square in the eyes when she was coming down with a monster hit and I got the dig and we scored. I think she knew I was here to stay. That was a big moment."

For the game, both teams traded haymakers all night with the score locked at 2-2 before the fifth, 15-point set with Ridgeview winning games one and three; 25-18 for both games and Trinity winning games two and four; 25-21 and 25-13 with a momentum swing seemingly going to the home team.

Strategically, Henry may have employed a little bait and switch on the Trinity defensive front knowing that nearly everyone in the gym was looking for a clash between King and Ridgeview senior Haley Robinson.

We conceded that Amaria was going to get a bunch of big hits in," said Henry. "We knew she would deliver some big blows and Haley was going to go toe to toe with her with help from either Harper (Herring) or Katie (Cole)."

With that as the strategy, what Henry got was two magnificent efforts on offense from senior Brianna Adams and junior Katie Cole with Cole delivering 27 kills on the night.

"Katie was the spark," said Henry. "We were able to answer their big shots with our own and Haley spent more time on defense. Katie and Brianna (13 kills) were awesome."

Robinson did get 15 kills, but more importantly, 10 blocks. Senior Nevaeh Baugh added six blocks with Cole getting four.

"Coach Henry told the team we would need to have someone step up to take the pressure off Haley as our big hitter," said Cole, who had previous kill highs of 15 shots twice (3-0 win over Oakleaf, 3-1 win over Bolles in early September) prior in regular season play. "I went in thinking to myself that I owe the team to have a big game. This was about as big a game as we have had all season, I guess."

In the critical fifth game, Ridgeview got up 10-7 with King blasting a shot to Little that was returned to the net to 10-8, but Trinity put their serve into the net.

Adams blasted a service ace on her strike to put the Ridgeview bench into a frenzy at 12-8.

"We needed a spark after that fourth game because they were knocking us around," said Henry. "Brianna's serve was huge."

At 13-8, King employed a change-up to her usual lightning bolts to close the scoring to 13-9 and swing momentum back to Trinity.

Trinity got another bomb to 13-10 and keep serve with Little missing a serve to 13-11.

Trinity fought to 13-12 before Henry called time out.

"I told them to just breathe," said Henry.

Ridgeview scored off the Trinity serve, 14-12 with King delivering her biggest blow to 14-13.

A deep serve got Cole set at the net for the death blow and the 15-13 win.

Ridgeview ends their regular season with a home match Thurs., Oct. 12 with Ponte Vedra, who beat the Panthers 2-0 in tournament play on September 23 and 3-1 on September 19.

District tournaments start October 17.

Middleburg (18-5), in tournament play, defeated No. 2 ranked Jensen Beach 2-0 with two more regular season games both at Middleburg; Episcopal (8-15) and 6A-Chiles (18-4, 2nd in 6A, 7th in Florida) on Tues., Oct. 10 and Wed., Oct. 11.

Fleming Island, in 6A, is 15-6 with their own 3-2 thriller; a loss to Bartram Trail led by 19 kills from Rauly Eason and 15 from Samantha Rupert, with Providence and Menendez both coming to Fleming Island High for Oct. 10 and Oct. 12.

St. Johns Country Day School, 11-5 in 2A, finishes with three games; Oct. 9 home vs. Florida Deaf (0-11), Tues., Oct. 10 at Bishop Snyder and Thurs., Oct. 12 at Harvest Community.

Orange Park, 14-7 (38th in 6A) in district 3-6A with Oakleaf, Fleming Island (18th 6A, 15-5), Fletcher (10th 6A, 18-3), Nease, First Coast and Ponte Vedra (15th 6A, 7-9), has recent wins over Bishop Snyder and St. Augustine and will finish with Ed White (6-6) Mon., Oct. 9. The Raiders are led by Ryanne Robinson's 309 scoring kills and Hailey Revak's 596 assists for the season.

Oakleaf, 10-12, finishes with Baker County (13-4) and Beachside (18-4).

Clay, in District 4-5A (4-14), finishes with Menendez and Baker County.

Keystone Heights, 2-16 in district 4-4A, finishes with Interlachen (11-3) and P.K. Yonge (8-8).