ORANGE PARK - Ridgeview High went fast and furious for a quick 5-0 lead right out of the gate in their district 4-5A championship firest game Thursday night to flex the muscle of their seven straight district titles, but Middleburg High, riding the motivational wave of a final season for long-time head coach Carrie Prewitt, answered behind a 22-Kill night from sophomore Brooke Forkum, to end the Panther streak with a 3-1 championship win Thursday night at Ridgeview High.

“We had to figure out a way to go around their big blocker at the net (Haley Robinson),” said Forkum, a left handed striker for Middleburg. “Connor was going to get a lot of attention at the net and I needed to be on target to keep them guessing. I was able to go down the line for a lot of shots.”

Middleburg opened with a 25-22 win that shook the Panther fanbase, but the Panthers were not through with the defense of their titles with a quick-kill 25-15 second game win to set up a dramatic finish for one of the teams.

With the game being the first meeting between the two Clay County powers, Middleburg showed just a bit more accuracy over the net to complete the mission with two final game wins; 25-22 and 25-20, to garner the trophy.

For Prewitt, who has announced this as her final season as a coach for Middleburg, the emotion of watching her team not flinch despite the massive attack exacted by Ridgeview garnered a coy smile after the final points.

“I know my girls were ready for this,” said Prewitt, who steadily built a 17-11 overall season record compared to Ridgeview’s 16-11 record also built on competing against the state’s best teams through the season. “They have been looking forward to playing Ridgeview all season. We knew we had to step up and play.”

The ferocity of Ridgeview’s reaction to Middleburg winning the first game was what Prewitt took as the poking of the proverbial bear; or Panther as a multiple district title holder.

With strong serves from Morgan Padgett and Kendyl Wahl, Middleburg held a slim 24-22 lead after a Robinson block closed the gap before Middleburg got the final point.

?In the second game, behind outside hits from Brianna Adams, who finished with 16 kills to lead Ridgeview, sprinted to a 7-3 early lead. A diving save near the stands by Casiple and a monster slash by Forkum got the score as close as 16-13 before the Panthers ran away with a slam by Adams and an ace by Harper Herring got to 18-13. A missed set cost one point with Forkum finding a corner to 19-14. Adams again fired over the Bronco blocking attempt from Cheyenne Campbell to set up Casiple as the serve line. Robinson covered a Forkum kill shot that went out of bounds to 21-15. Adams again found the floor to 22-15 to jump start a five point spurt by Ridgeview. Adams finished off the game with three straight shot attempts that ended with the third finding paydirt, 25-15.

“They beat us pretty soundly in that second game,” said Prewitt. “We kind of stayed the course and we knew their middle was strong. We to focus on attacking from the outside.”

For the Broncos, it was Connor Rahn who exacted the most damage with 28 scoring strikes for the match with Ridgeview’s Brianna Adams pasting 16 kills and Robinson adding 13 scores from her middle spot.

Forkum’s presence from the outside, with a series of strikes that evaded the blocking prowess of Robinson sliding from center court and the back line defense of libero Kasey Libero for key scores, was enough to keep the Panther defense on its heels. Robinson was able to connect on just five blocks for the night.

Rahn, well aware of Robinson as a premiere blocker, knew she would have to be somewhat of a distraction to allow Forkum to be a power player.

“We want to keep coach Prewitt’s season going and get her to a state championship before she leaves for sure,” said Rahn.

After an 18-18 score in game three, Adams punched up a kill shot to put the Panthers up momentarily before Middleburg answered Madi Kelley dropping a dink shot behind Robinson’s block attempt and Rahn ramming a shot to get to 21-19. Robinson retaliated with a shot over Middleburg’s Becca Staefe to 21-20 with a block on a Robinson spike out of bounds to 21-21.

A block by Robinson bounded back to Rahn who swiftly returned fire with Campbell getting blocked back again to Rahn who canned her second straight kill to 23-21. Rahn ended the game with another strike, 25-22.

In game four, Rahn stayed hot on top of the net to a 17-12 Bronco lead and again over Herring’s block attempt to 20-13.

Ridgeview got to 20-15 on a Forkum misfire and looked to gain some momentum behind Casiple’s serves but Kelley again dropped a dink shot to 21-16.

A Forkum slice cross court pushed to 22-18 with Ridgeview losing serve on Mariah Boston-Jones long serve to 24-19.

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District Results

2-2A: Christ’s Church beats St. Johns Country Day School 3-0 (25-18, 25-19, 25-23).

Region 1-2A

Quarterfinals: Oct. 25, Tuesday

Higher seed hosts

(Record, 2A Rank)

1. Oak Hall (22-4, 8th) vs. 8. St. John Paul II (12-14, 38th)

4. Harvest Community (12-9, 12th) vs. 5. Beaches Chapel (16-7, 27th)

2. Christ’s Church (16-5, 9th) vs. 7. University Christian (15-6, 34th)

3. St. Johns Country Day School (18-5, 11th) vs. 6. Countryside Christian (10-11, 31st)

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District 4-4A: Keystone Heights beats Tocoi Creek 3-1, Keystone Heights loses to Bolles 3-0, Bolles loses to Bishop Kenny 3-0 in championship game

Region 1-4A

Quarterfinals: Oct. 25, Tuesday

Higher seed hosts

(Record, 4A Rank)

1. Bishop Kenny (16-9, 6th) vs. 8. Baker County (11-10, 25th)

4. Beachside (15-5, 15th) vs. 5. Fernandina Beach (19-5, 14th)

2. Bolles (19-7, 7th) vs. 7. Pensacola (17-9, 24th)

3. South Walton (15-10, 8th) vs. 6. Keystone Heights (17-7, 21st)