For just the second time in school and T.R. Miller Lady Tiger volleyball history, the Lady Tigers have advanced to the sub-state round of the state volleyball tournament.

The Lady Tigers advanced to sub-state with a win over Daleville Saturday.

After the win, the Lady Tigers lost to Montgomery Academy in the second round and Bayside Academy in the consolation round.

The 1-2 record in the regional tournament improved the Lady Tigers record to 19-10.

T.R. Miller will play Montevallo at 4 p.m. Thursday at Montevallo. Montevallo is 19-6 and won their area and regional championship.

T.R. Miller 3, Daleville 0

In the win over Daleville in the first round of the regionals, the Lady Tigers won 3-0 winning 25-11, 25-14, and 25-5.

In game one, Natalie Neal had 10 service points and four kills while Elizabeth Nelson added five service points and seven assists.

In game two, Leah Brundidge led with eight service points and six assists while Emily Waters had five service points and five digs. Neal had five points and four kills in the win.

In game three, T.R. Miller got 11 straight service points to end the game. Nelson had six points and five assists and Taylor Guthrie had four service points and six kills.

“I felt like when we got off of the bus we had a chance to win,” T.R. Miller Lady Tiger head coach Greg White said. “The girls had a great attitude, they were excited about being there and they were ready to play. They knew how important that first games against Daleville was and they were focused on playing well. We were able to get ahead early in all three matches and we forced them to play from behind and that caused them some problems.”

MA 3, T.R. Miller 0

Against Montgomery Academy, T.R. Miller lost 25-18, 25-13, and 25-5.

Guthrie had six service points and four kills in game one while Brundidge had three service points and six assists.

In game two, Brundidge had three service points and four assists while Neal had three and two kills.

“We came out in game one excited about the opportunity to play the No. 3 team in the state and we played pretty well but just couldn’t stop them consistently,” White said. “We had a few block and digs but we just couldn’t get much going on offense because we were having to play so much defense. We had a couple of real bad serve receive rotations in games two and three where we gave up way too many points and dug ourselves a huge hole and couldn’t recover.”

Bayside 3, T.R. Miller 0

Playing against No. 1 and area rival Bayside Academy, T.R. Miller lost 3-0 losing 25-11, 25-14, and 25-13.

“Bayside is a team that will make you pay for every little mistake that you make and we gave them too many free ball opportunities and when you do that they can score in bunches,” White said. “We had some spurts where we did some good things but not real consistent.

“As I’ve said before they are the No. 1 team in the state for a reason and us having played them now four times will make us a better prepared team for our next opponent.”

Overall, White said he and his team were very excited about the opportunity to go to regionals because they just missed out the previous two seasons.

“The girls prepared well all week at practice and had great enthusiasm during the week,” White said. “Now we have an opportunity to go to sub-state for only the second time in school history (2006 team lost to ACA in sub-state). To get to this point in the season is not easy and we take a lot of pride in the fact that there are only 16 teams in 3A still playing volleyball today and we are one of them. We had to work very hard to get to this point and hopefully we can take one more step.

“We have given ourselves an opportunity to take that step and that’s all we can ask for.”