By Kyle Coppola
Eustis Volleyball Players Have A Trumendous Week!
Eustis Volleyball had a tremendous week! They not only were able to beat cross town rival Tavares this week but also won against The Villages in a big upset to improve to 2-0 on the week against some good competition. Eustis had a few players that absolutely balled out and we want to give those girls credit for a huge week!
First let’s talk about the play of Brook Fintak. Brooke is a 5”8 Junior outside hitter. She has had a monster year and has over 150 kill shots this season! This week alone Fintak totalled 44 kill shots leading to a 3-1 upset victory against The Villages and an impressive 3-2 victory against Tavares which went the distance!
Fintak who wears #15 also leads the team in total Aces this year with 23 of them. She is serving an impressive 94% and rarely misses her target. She has impressed everyone this season including us! But Fintak would not have had that success without her teammate Abigail Jackson #6 a senior who is as selfless of a player as you’re going to find.
(#15 Brooke Fintak who is a junior stands left. #6 Abigail Jackson who is one of the teams senior players stands right. Both ladies had an incredible week of competition.)
Jackson may not get the glory of the kill shot most of the time, however she is one of the best setters in Lake County. That means she’s the one who sets the ball up for Fintak to spike the ball in the opponent’s face meaning Jackson gets assists on kill shots and wow did this girl impress us this week! Jackson had an amazing 83 assists to help out Eustis win against The Villages and Tavares. Both of those wins were considered upsets. Jackson now has 144 assists this season.
Jackson gets plenty of help from Junior #10 Aivree Geiger who also is right with her in terms of assists with 145 of them. Between the two ladies they set Fintak up for some excellent kill shot opportunities.
Overall Eustis is coming together nicely as a team down the stretch. It is no question that the season started off rough for the Lady Panthers. This team was 3-6 in their first 10 games and now are 5-6 with only two games left in the regular season against MDCA on Tuesday and Senior night on Wednesday against Umatilla.
We wish the entire Eustis Lady Panther team the best of luck as they enter the districts and hopefully this underdog team can make some noise come playoff time! In order to get into the playoffs Eustis will most likely need to win the district championship. Not an easy feat, however the way this team is coming together down the stretch, we think it is possible.
Go Eustis! Great job ladies!
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
