In the season opener volleyball game for the T.R. Miller Lady Tigers, T.R. Miller split a tri-match with 6A schools Baldwin County and Robertsdale.

T.R. Miller defeated Baldwin County 2-1 in the first match before falling to Robertsdale 2-0.

T.R. Miller lost the first set to Baldwin County 25-19 before rallying and winning 25-23 and 15-11 in the second and third sets to get the win.

Against Robertsdale, T.R. Miller lost 25-11 and 25-7 to start the season 1-1.

For T.R. Miller against Baldwin County, Elizabeth Nelson had eight assists and 10 service points. Taylor Guthrie had five kills, four blocks, and eight service points followed by Natalie Neal with five kills and 15 service points, and Leah Brundidge with 14 service points.

“Game one was pretty emotional for us,” Lady Tiger head coach Greg White said. “Baldwin County High School showed a lot of class by having a moment of silence before the game in honor of Coach Rotch. We were the first T.R. Miller team to participate in an athletic event this school year so we really wanted to go out and play as hard as we possibly could. The team and I talked before the first game and we decided that we were going to play the first game of the season in honor of Coach Rotch. They fought back from a 0-1 deficit to win the match 2-1. I was very proud of their effort and I’m sure he would be also.”

Against Robertsdale, Emily Waters had three kills and eight digs and Leigh Margaret Bostic had two kills and four digs.

“Robertsdale was a very good team,” White said. “They had a lot of depth and we just couldn’t match up with them on the net. They had a couple of really good outside hitters that gave us fits the whole game. We didn’t do a very good job in serve receive and we hurt ourselves on the service line also by being inconsistent. Both of tonight’s’ matches will help us as the season goes on.

“We played two very good 6A schools and were able to beat one of them. It was a good measuring stick for our team and it showed us some of our weaknesses that we need to work on.”