George Jenkins boys volleyball halts season in regional semifinals

ORLANDO — The George Jenkins boys volleyball team knew the competition would ramp up in the Class 3A regional semifinals Friday at Freedom High School.

After all, when you win as many games in a row as the Eagles did in 2025, every team gave the best shot. So, it’s to no surprise that Freedom — the No. 1 seed in regionals and the No. 13 team in all of Florida that has had a program for 16 years — played the best volleyball, ultimately winning 3-0 over No. 4-seeded and No. 39 George Jenkins, ending the Eagles season.

“It just goes to show that they played a lot of high-level competition, so they didn’t fold under pressure. … And I think it was hard to come back from that, so it was a tough one. Our boys, they’ve given their hearts all season and that’s a tough way to go out. … I think we gave them everything we had. So, that’s all you can ask for,” George Jenkins head boys volleyball coach Jena Ousley said after the game.

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From the get-go, Freedom was executing several kills high off the block, which seemingly surprised the George Jenkins bunch. Freedom’s outside hitters flat-out dominated, which was the theme in three sets.

Still, the Eagles showed fight, passing solidly on serve-receive. But George Jenkins couldn’t put the ball down like the 23 other matches played in 2025.

“This is the best team we played all season. They had a solid offense. They had people coming off the bench with solid offense. They have a stacked team. They have a lot of people,” Ousley said.

This deep team ended the Eagles 2025 season, but many of George Jenkins’ key cogs will make their return in 2026, as there is just one starting senior in right-side hitter RJ Benion. Benion was second on the team in kills and hitting percentage, and third on the team in total blocks and receptions. Benion will be playing volleyball at Stetson University in DeLand next year.

Still, junior outside hitter Jacob Aca, who led the team in kills, serving aces and assists, will be back. Other major key returners will be sophomore outside hitter Matthew Aca, junior middle hitter Diego Ayala, junior Libero William Snell, junior middle blocker Damian Garcia, junior outside hitter Kevin Sanchez, middle blocker Matthew Hornsby and freshman defensive specialist Luke Talbot.

While nobody wants to lose, Jacob Aca said going as far as the team did was gratifying.

“I’m happy where we landed. We fought hard. This is the farthest we’ve ever been. It feels nice to be in a different gym. We’re in Orlando. We are for a little Polk school that doesn’t go anywhere. Now we’re here in the big leagues playing Orlando teams,” Aca said.