Thursday in Brewton, the T.R. Miller and W.S. Neal volleyball teams went head-to-head with Brewton Middle School, W.S. Neal’s JV, and T.R. Miller’s varsity teams claiming wins over their rivals.

The Brewton Middle School team defeated W.S. Neal 2-0 while the Lady Eagle JV team defeated T.R. Miller 2-1. Prior to varsity action, a moment of silence was held to honor the late Donnie Rotch, T.R. Miller’s principal, and the late Phillip Ellis, principal at W.S. Neal High School. In the game, the Lady Tigers won 3-0.

Brewton Middle School improved to 5-0 with the win while W.S. Neal fell to 2-1. T.R. Miller’s JV team fell to 2-2 while W.S. Neal’s improved to 4-1.

The Lady Tiger varsity team improved to 4-2 while W.S. Neal fell to 2-4.

T.R. Miller varsity 3, W.S. Neal 0

T.R. Miller swept W.S. Neal 25-3, 25-13, and 25-19.

Whitney Douglas had eight service points, seven kills, and three blocks to lead the Eagles in the loss while Britta Wood had service points and eight assists.

“We simply did not come out and play,” W.S. Neal Lady Eagle head coach Britney Shelly said. “We did not play good defense tonight. Our players were not ready for the ball and we continuously could not control our passes and get it to the setter.

“We improved from game to game and at times hung in and competed, but we made simple, silly mistakes which lost us our momentum.”

For T.R. Miller in game one, Natalie Neal led with 10 service points and one ace and Leah Brundidge had nine points and two aces. Amber Nelson led with two kills

In game two, Neal led T.R. Miller with six service points and four kills. Taylor Guthrie had six service points and six kills and Emily Waters had six service points.

In game three, Guthrie led with seven service points and five kills and Elizabeth Nelson had five service points and eight assists. Waters had five service points and two kills.

“First of all I would like to thank all of the fans for coming out tonight, especially the student section,” Lady Tiger head coach Greg White said. “They made a lot of noise and provided a great atmosphere for the players. Game one tonight was just one of those games when everything kind of clicked and went our way. Natalie and Leah both got on a roll serving and had 12 service points each.

“Amber Nelson had a great front row performance during this game with several kills. I haven’t seen or been a part of a scoring run like that before.”

White said he knew coming into the game that Neal was a very good serving team so they put a lot of emphasis on serve receive this week during practice and he thinks they handled that OK.

“We also thought that we might have an advantage on the net so we really emphasized our setting and ball striking,” White said. “Our setters did a real good job tonight of getting the balls to our hitters and our hitters did an excellent job of spiking and ball placement.

“Tonight was a big win for us. Coach Shelly is doing a great job over there. Her girls are well prepared and play hard. We will see those guys a couple of more times this season and I’m sure they will continue to improve and get better. We have to do the same thing. We have a big area tri-match on Monday with Clarke County and Washington County. We need to enjoy this victory tonight and get back to work tomorrow and continue to improve as a team.”

W.S. Neal JV 2,

T.R. Miller 1

After losing the first game to T.R. Miller 25-12, W.S. Neal took games two and three to beat the Tigers.

W.S. Neal won game two 25-16 and game three 15-12.

Shelly said it took her team a game tonight to get their feet under them.

“We played sloppy and uncontrolled during the first match,” Shelly said. “We corrected those mistakes and played great defense. Our offense looked good too.

“We had some big hits and key blocks from Stephanie Lambert that kept us in the game. Overall each player played well and did not give up. Staying together as a team and hustling, especially defensively, was key to our success tonight.”

In game one, Jerrica Watson led with seven service points and Bailey Stone had two.

In game two, Watson and Moriah Brundidge led with three and Gracee Dixon led with eight straight.

In game three, Brundidge led with two points and Marissa White and Dixon led with two points each.

Brewton Middle School 2, W.S. Neal 0

Brewton Middle School handed W.S. Neal Middle their first loss of the season with a 2-0 sweep of the Lady Eagles.

Brewton won 26-24 and 25-21.

In game one, Amelia Peach had three service points with Morgan Manning having two. Krystal Bell had two service points and two aces—the game winning points.

Ashley Fleming led W.S. Neal with five points.

In game two, Peach led with five service points for Brewton Middle School and Kendal Clayton and Ashlyn Lambeth both had three points with Lambeth having an ace for W.S. Neal.