REGIONAL VOLLEYBALL: MA, LAMP, Pike Road earn trips to Birmingham

Caroline McDaniel with the kill in Montgomery Academy’s win in the Super Regionals at the Cramton Bowl Multiplex. (Tim Gayle)

Compiled by TIM GAYLE

Montgomery Academy’s newcomers looked right at home on Thursday, helping the Eagles to their fifth consecutive trip to the state tournament with a pair of wins in the 4A South Super Regional at the Multiplex at Cramton Bowl.

Montgomery Academy won three consecutive state championships with a group of veteran players over the past three years, but only one player off of this year’s squad has any meaningful varsity experience from last season, giving the Eagles a new look as they earn their 36th state tournament berth in the 43-year history of the event, including 15 trips to the state finals. 

Montgomery Academy coach Julie Gordon said her team has to play better after advancing to the 4A regional semifinals if they have any hope of winning the regional title. 

“We did some good things defensively and offensively, but we need to play a little bit more consistent and start a little stronger,” Gordon said. “But when we got going and when we passed the ball well, our offense is very talented and we can spread the hits around. You don’t have to rely on one person. We have a team that can get kills.”

Montgomery Academy breezed through the opener with Indian Springs, winning 25-7, 25-12 and 25-8 as Virginia Meacham had eight kills, five digs and three aces, Addi Vinson had two digs, 28 assists and six aces and Mattie Freeman had four digs and seven aces.

In the second match, the Eagles defeated Munford 25-11, 25-9 and 25-14, but Gordon wasn’t particularly pleased with her team’s performance.

“I don’t know if they saw this team and lost a little focus,” she said. “Both of these (opposing) teams are different from what we’re used to. Both these teams stayed out of system so balls don’t fall in traditional places. That gets you a little off guard, but we rallied and caught on to what they were doing and got some great production out of our offensive hitters today.”

Caroline McDaniel had 11 kills, a pair of blocks, a dig and three aces against Munford, while Meacham had 10 kills, two blocks, two digs and an ace and Vinson had a kill, nine digs, 33 assists and an ace.

Montgomery Academy (23-15) will play Northside in the 4A semifinals on Friday at 10 a.m., while area rival LAMP (20-20) is playing St. Michael (31-10) in the other semifinal. The winners will play for the regional title at 1 p.m., while the losers will play in a consolation match, also at 1 p.m., to determine the seeding for next week’s state tournament.

“It really doesn’t matter who the opponent is, it all depends on us and how we’re performing,” Gordon said. “Whether they’re good or bad, it’s all about us and how we’re executing the little things to make the big things happen, the big things being winning a match. But we have to do the little things consistently. We did a decent job but we’re going to have to get better tomorrow.

“We would like to go into the state tournament as the number one seed so that we can get matched up with the fourth-place North team, but we’ve got to take it one game at a time. We can’t take anything for granted. We’ve got to be ready for the next game.”

LAMP headed to state tourney

It was the worst time to replace a volleyball coach. 

Summer workouts had just started and LAMP was returning six seniors who had led the Golden Tigers to its first state tournament appearances in the history of the program in 2019 and 2020. Dee Wilson, the coach who had engineered the turnaround for the Tigers’ volleyball program, stepped down to accompany her husband, who had just taken a job in Arkansas.

Kolbi Bates, Lauren Bonikowski, Grace Hoffman, Olivia Hughes, Borden Lash and Gracey Norris kept the program headed in the right direction, guiding the Golden Tigers to a pair of wins at the South Super Regional on Thursday and a third consecutive trip to the state tournament. 

“It’s just a really cool way to show Coach Wilson that she taught us a lot and that we’re here because of her,” Norris said. “But we also really appreciate Coach (Tanielu) Mose stepping up and filling in that position for us. He’s been a really great leader and we just look forward to going to state and hopefully going really far.”

 Mose knew he had a special group of seniors when he accepted the position as Wilson’s successor in August. 

“As long as they had a coach that knew what they were doing in leading the girls, they’ve got the talent, they’ve got the mindset,” he said. “They just needed to show it on the court and they did.”

In Thursday’s first round, the Golden Tigers cruised past Dora 25-12, 25-12 and 25-11. Hughes had eight kills, a block and a pair of aces, Jailyn Dixon had six kills, a pair of blocks and six aces, Hoffman had four kills, 17 assists and two aces and Bates had five digs.

In the second round, LAMP looked just as impressive in dumping Cleburne County 25-14, 25-13 and 25-13. Hughes had nine kills, a pair of blocks and five aces, while Norris had seven kills and a pair of blocks, Hoffman had three kills and 26 assists and Bates had 12 digs. 

“It was pretty solid,” Norris said of her team’s performance. “I thought our team did a good job not digging holes or playing below our level and just taking care of business.”

With the wins, LAMP (20-20) qualified for the state tournament but returns to the Multiplex on Friday to chase a regional championship. The Golden Tigers will play St. Michael (31-10) at 10 a.m. in one semifinals, while Northside will play Montgomery Academy (23-15) in the other. The two winners will play for the regional title at 1 p.m., while the two losers will play in a consolation round, also at 1 p.m., to determine seeding for next week’s state tournament.

Those uncertain days back in the summer seemed like a distant memory after Thursday’s wins. 

“At the beginning, it was a little discouraging losing our coach and wondering how the chemistry would be with whoever filled her position,” Norris said. “But Coach Mose is a great guy and our team already has a really strong bond, so I knew over the season we’d all work hard to get where we needed to be.” 

Pike Road bounces back to earn trip to state

Pike Road bounced back from a loss to Providence Christian earlier on Thursday with a three-set sweep of the Sylacauga Aggies in the Class 5A consolation match of the South Super Regional at the Multiplex at Cramton Bowl on Thursday night. 

“Making it to regionals last year was a really big experience for us,” said Gracie Branham. “It’s really important to us this year and we really wanted to make it to the state tournament, which we were able to do tonight.”  

The Patriots won the first two matches in the super regional on Wednesday, securing a berth in the state tournament, but Thursday’s matches against Providence Christian and Sylacauga were for seeding purposes in next week’s tournament at the Birmingham Crossplex.

That trip will be a new experience for Branham, an outside hitter who joined the team as a freshman. Branham is one of the few players who has connections to the early days of Pike Road volleyball, which started with no home court in 2018 and lost in the 3A area tournament semifinals in 2019 before winning the 5A Area 5 tournament the last two years.

“Our first varsity season was four years ago and we didn’t even make it past our area in our first two years,” she said. “That really fed our fire this year, because this year’s team is really the best we’ve ever had.” 

The Patriots dropped a hard-fought match against perennial contender Providence Christian, but bounced back with an impressive three-set sweep of the Aggies to grab third place in the regional. In the first set, the Patriots set the tone with a 25-13 win, then followed up with two straight 25-14 sets to sweep the Aggies.

CLASS 4A

First Round

Cleburne County (31-11) 3, Sumter Central (7-10) 0

LAMP (19-20) 3, Dora (19-19) 0

St. Michael Catholic (30-10) 3, Montevallo (12-14) 0 (25-10, 25-7, 25-20)

American Christian 3, Straughn (25-7) 3

Northside 3, Ashford (17-15) 2

Bibb County (15-2) 3, W.S. Neal (8-14) 0

Montgomery Academy (22-15) 3, Indian Springs (8-8) 0

Munford (28-18) 3, Jackson (7-9) 0

Quarterfinals

LAMP (20-20) 3, Cleburne County (31-12) 0

St. Michael Catholic (31-10) 3, American Christian 0

Northside 3, Bibb County (15-3) 1

Montgomery Academy (23-15) 3, Munford (28-19) 0

Semifinals

LAMP (20-20) vs. St. Michael Catholic (31-10), Friday, 10 a.m.

Northside vs. Montgomery Academy (23-15), Friday, 10 a.m.

Consolation finals, Friday, 1 p.m.

Championship finals, Friday, 1 p.m.

5A STATE TOURNAMENT

Bill Harris Arena, Birmingham CrossPlex

Tuesday

Game 1 -- Bayside Academy (54-6) vs. Ramsay (22-18), noon

Game 2 -- Brewer (29-23) vs. Pike Road (23-12), noon

Game 3 -- East Limestone (42-7) vs. Sylacauga (29-10), noon

Game 4 -- Providence Christian (28-19) vs. Lawrence County (46-19), noon

Game 5 -- winner of Game 1 vs. winner of Game 2, 6 p.m.

Game 6 -- winner of Game 3 vs. winner of Game 4, 6 p.m.

Wednesday

Game 7 -- Championship, 2:30 p.m.