AISA VOLLEYBALL: Edgewood wins sixth-straight title, topping Hooper Academy
Edgewood Academy celebrates the 2024 state volleyball title after defeating Hooper Academy in straight sets on Tuesday at the Cramton Bowl Multiplex. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
A month ago, Hooper Academy swept a best-of-five series with Edgewood Academy to complete the home-and-home season sweep of the Wildcats.
This past week, Edgewood returned the favor, sweeping the Colts to win the region championship last week, then sweeping them again on Tuesday to win the Alabama Independent School Association Class AA state volleyball championship.
“We saw them in the beginning of the season, then in midseason,” said Edgewood senior Avery White. “Then we played them to be regional champs (and today). We won when it mattered.”
The Colts (26-4) lost twice during the regular season to Lowndes Academy, but defeated the Rebels in an intensely played five-set match in the AA semifinals on Monday. They couldn’t find the same spark on Tuesday against the Wildcats.
“We just didn’t play our best in the last week,” Hooper coach Jessi Hayes said. “Now, yesterday (against Lowndes) we did. I think we played with a lot of confidence earlier in the season, then kind of fell apart. We had to change up a couple of things, but it was just the day. We played great yesterday.”
For Edgewood (27-5), it was the Wildcats’ sixth consecutive state championship, winning AA a year ago when the AISA had three volleyball classifications, then defeating last year’s AAA champion, Hooper, in the AA finals on Tuesday.
“We had a lot of talent, but it was inexperienced,” Edgewood coach Brad Starks said. “We spent a lot of time shuffling people around, moving people in and out. Most of our lineup was completely different from the first time we played them.”
It clearly was not the same team that lost to Hooper 3-0 and 3-0 in September, jumping out to an early lead against the Colts and sweeping them 25-19, 25-23 and 25-19, playing with a confidence in closing out sets that the Colts clearly did not possess.
“You’ve got to give them credit, they played the same way no matter what the score is and we had trouble with that early in the year,” Starks said. “We had them dead to rights at our place a month and a half ago and they came from the dead and beat us. And kind of shocked us.
“A couple of weeks later, we went in (to a rematch at Hooper), hoping we were going to get revenge and we had them set point two different times and they ended up sweeping us. They were just tougher than we were for a while.”
It took a while, White said, for new players to learn their roles this season.
“It was hard trying to build people up and put people in the (right) position because we lost four phenomenal seniors last year, seniors that did so much for the team and were irreplaceable,” White said. “We’ve always been a close team so having people that are younger and haven’t been going to the school long -- we had two seniors that are new -- it was hard but the feeling of being able to do it is great.
“I feel like a lot of people saw the seniors we lost from last year and saw how they played and what they did for the team and there was a bit of doubt there. Seeing where we started and how we were able to finish it is just amazing.”
While the Colts didn’t win on Tuesday, it marked the third consecutive year Hooper Academy has emerged as one of the state’s top volleyball programs. Hayes gave a lot of credit to seniors Lucy Richardson, Grace Seale and KG Taylor, along with senior Kaylee Midkiff, who sat out 2024 with an injury.
“It’s a big deal,” Hayes said. “This is our third year, being in the championship game. The last two years, it was AAA, this year it was AA. This group is very special, especially the seniors. They’re going to be missed a whole lot and they have done a great job with this program.”
Making the all-tournament team were White, Allie Smith and Baylie Barrett of Edgewood, Seale and Henlee Garvin of Hooper, Anna Claire Thomas of Fort Dale Academy and Brooklyn Bullard of Lowndes Academy.