SANTA ROSA BEACH — For South Walton volleyball coach Meaghan Allen, winning district titles never get old. Thursday's sweep of Pensacola was the latest in a string of five-straight district crowns for South Walton, easily enough to label the Seahawks a dynasty.
Yet a region title eludes them. And that's where the focus shifts, Allen looking to replicate the run she and husband Scott had back in 2017 when they led the Big Green to a 7A state championship.
A No. 2-seed in Region 1-4A is a good place to start with the Seahawks shoring up at least home-court advantage through the first two rounds of the regional playoffs starting Wednesday against an opponent yet to be determined at the Hawk's Nest. And they'll carry a 12-game win streak into it, the Seahawks outscoring opponents 31-4 over a five-week stretch after getting swept by District 1-5A champ Mosley way back on Sept. 12.
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Credit a switch from a 5-2 rotation to a 6-1. Credit the next-woman-up culture Allen has built in leading the program to a 20-win season.
"We got off to a little bit of a rocky start and re-evaluated a little bit," said Allen, whose team improved to 20-5 on Thursday night. "We talked about defense, being a defensive team, keeping the ball in the air and frustrating our opponents. We just really bought in and any change I've thrown at them, they've adapted. And we've had a couple of injuries of late that have forced us to make a couple of lineup changes, but they just don't give up. Whenever there's a hole, someone else is ready to step up and fill that in.
"We have more depth this year than we've ever had in the past."
On Thursday, the Seahawks flexed that depth in a 25-11, 25-17, 25-20 sweep of a Pensacola program that entered the night 14-6 and playoff bound at third in the region.
South Walton's Maci Jones delivered a match-high 17 kills, Jordyn Swift added nine kills, Anna Buck and Ashlyn Priest chipped in eight kills each and Ella Driggers added six on feeds from Evelyn Brandman, who dished out a game-best 39 assists. Add to it the collective 16 aces, and South Walton really didn't give the visitors many free points or wiggle room.
"We talk a lot about running our tempo," Allen said. "We don't control how our opponent's play. We 100 percent control how we play. So we talk a lot about playing South Walton volleyball and we're in control of the ball. We dictate the flow, we dictate the energy and we focus on not giving our opponent a lot of free balls."
They'll take that mentality into regionals, where on the opposite side of the bracket is a familiar foe in Bishop Kenny, who is ranked first in region and third in 4A and has ended the Seahawks' season three straight years.
This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: 'Playing South Walton volleyball': Seahawks celebrate 5th straight district title
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