Seventh Heaven: TRM volleyball claims seventh ECT championship

Published 2:29 pm Monday, October 10, 2011


The Escambia County volleyball tournament began back in 2005 and every year since the tournament began, the T.R. Miller Lady Tiger volleyball has been crowned tournament champion.
Saturday, at W.S. Neal High School in East Brewton, the Lady Tigers made it seven straight championships as they claimed the 2011 tournament crown, but the seventh straight championship almost didn’t come.
After defeating Escambia County 2-0 in their first game Saturday, the Lady Tigers lost the first set of their second game to Flomaton 25-23. In the second set against the Lady Canes, T.R. Miller was down 14-3 and 15-6 and rallied to get a 25-23 win to even the match at 1-1. In the third and deciding game, the Lady Tigers defeated Flomaton 15-9 to get the win.
In their final match against W.S. Neal, the Lady Tigers won 2-0 to get the championship.
Overall, T.R. Miller took first place in the tournament with a 3-0 record followed by Flomaton in second place with a 2-1 record and W.S. Neal in third place with a 1-2 record. Escambia County placed fourth as they went winless at 0-3.
To start the games off Saturday, W.S. Neal lost to Flomaton 2-0 (25-12 and 25-23). After Flomaton defeated Escambia County 2-0, T.R. Miller defeated Escambia County 2-0 (25-7 and 25-14). T.R. Miller defeated Flomaton 2-1 and W.S. Neal defeated Escambia County (25-16 and 25-23) before T.R. Miller ended the tournament with a 2-0 win over W.S. Neal 25-12 in both sets.
“In the Flomaton game, I think we were down 15-5, I don’t remember exactly, but we were not doing a whole lot right,” T.R. Miller Lady Tiger head coach Greg White said. “I told the girls to just not look at the scoreboard, but to just play every point and have a little pride in you. I told them to just get back in the ballgame and we got back in the ballgame and luckily enough, we were able to pull it out and that catapulted us to the next game. It was a huge win. We have done that a lot in the last few weeks of getting behind and battling back, but it is what it is. We don’t like that, but we were able to overcome inconsistencies. I was proud of them for coming back and showing a lot of toughness and getting that done.”
White said his team used their height at the net to beat W.S. Neal.
The Neal game was I just thought we had a little advantage at the net and we just used that as the game went on,” he said. “Neal played hard and played tough, but I just think the advantage at the net was the difference in that ballgame.”
White said his team takes a lot of pride in winning the tournament seven years in a row. “We talked about that before we came over,” White said. “The tournament is only seven years old and we have been fortunate to win all seven. Again, we take a lot of pride in that and put a lot of stock in this tournament. It is big deal to us and we want to keep that going and hopefully we can keep that going for a few more years. We are really proud of it.”
W.S. Neal Lady Eagle head coach Jeff Haney said he had a lot of mixed emotions about how they did in the county tournament.
“I think the game we played the worst in is the game we won,” Haney said. “That being said, we did not play great in any of the matches. We had moments in each match where we looked pretty good. We are to the point in the season now, where not playing well for an entire match will end your season. We cannot continue to play at this rollercoaster type level and expect to have any success in the post season. We had several girls that played really well in the tournament, but this is a sport that really requires that total team effort. Kaitlin Hadaway and Stephanie Lambert played very well the entire day. They certainly earned their spot on the All-Tournament Team. We enjoyed hosting the tournament and want to thank all the fans from all teams that came out to support their schools.”
Along with Hadaway and Lambert making the all tournament team for W.S. Neal, Leah Brundidge, Taylor Guthrie, Amber and Karisa Nelson made the team for T.R. Miller.
T.R. Miller’s overall record improved to 23-3 while W.S. Neal went to 8-13.
Both teams were scheduled to play in their area tournaments this week.

FHS 2, WSN 0
Against Flomaton to start the tournament Saturday, W.S. Neal lost 25-12 and 25-23.
For the Lady Eagles in set one, Lauren Boatwright had one ace and Hadaway had one service point. Ashlyn Lambeth had two points along with Kendal Clayton and Paige Grantham had one ace.
In set two, Boatwright had five points and one kill and Lambert had three kills. Hadaway had three points and Grantham had one kill. Lambeth had two points and Gracee Dixon had one point and one kill.

TRM 2, ECHS 0
In their first game Saturday, T.R. Miller downed Atmore 2-0 winning 25-7 and 25-14.
Leah Brundidge had one kill and two points in the first set while Amber Nelson had one kills, four points and one ace. Lauren Bradley had two kills and Taylor Guthrie had three kills, four points and one ace. Moriah Brundidge had four points and Haley Brown had one point. Abbi Roberts had one kill and Jessica Allan had three points and one ace.
In set two, Leah Brundidge had three points and one ace and Amber Nelson had nine points and one kill. Karisa Nelson had one kill and one point and Guthrie had two kills and one ace. Moriah Brundidge had two points and Lauren Ward had two points and one ace. Bradley had one kill.

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TRM 2, FHS 1
In a game that decided the 2011 champion, T.R. Miller rallied to down Flomaton 2-1.
In game one, T.R. Miller trailed early 7-0 but tied the game at 23-23. After earning a 24-23 lead, the point was ruled to redo and Flomaton got the next two points to get the win.
In game one, Amber Nelson had three points, two aces and two kills. Leah Brundidge had five points and Guthrie had two kills and one block. Karisa Nelson had four points, one ace and one block and Moriah Brundidge had one point. Bradley had one block and one kill.
In game two, Flomaton claimed an early 7-0, 11-1, 14-3 and 15-6 before T.R. Miller tied the game at 16. Trailing 23-22 to Flomaton, T.R. Miller got the final three points to win 25-23.
Leah Brundidge had four points, one ace and one kill and Amber Nelson had four kills and two points. Guthrie had three kills and two points and Moriah Brundidge had two aces. Brown had five points and Karisa Nelson had one point while Bradley had one kill.
In the game three 15-9 win for T.R. Miller, Amber Nelson had three points and Guthrie had four kills and two aces.
Karisa Nelson had three points and one ace and Moriah Brundidge had two points and one ace.

WSN 2, EC 0
Against Atmore, W.S. Neal got their lone win winning 25-16 and 25-23. Boatwright had three points and Lambeth had five points, one ace and one kill. Hadaway had four points and Clayton had three points. Grantham had two kills and Dixon had two.
In set two, Boatwright had five points, Hadaway had one and Lambeth had two. Grantham had three points and Lambert had three kills. Dixon had one point.

TRM 2, WSN 0
In a battle between T.R. Miller and W.S. Neal to end the tournament Saturday, T.R. Miller won 25-12 in games one and two.
In game one for W.S. Neal, Boatwright had one point along with Clayton and Lambert had two kills.
For T.R. Miller, Amber Nelson had three kills, two points and one ace and Leah Brundidge had two points and one kill. Bradley had two kills and Moriah Brundidge added for points. Guthrie had two kills, four service points and two aces and Wards had two points and one ace.
For W.S. Neal in set two, Boatwright had three points and two aces and Lambert had one kill. Grantham had one service point.
For T.R. Miller, Leah Brundidge had four points, Amber Nelson had one block and kill and five points and three aces. Karisa Nelson added five points and two aces and Guthrie had three points and one kill in the win.

About Adam Robinson

My name is Adam Robinson and I have been the Sports Editor of the Brewton Standard since September 2007. I cover all the local sports in the Brewton area. I am a 2007 graduate of Troy University with a degree in Print Journalism with a contract in Sports Information. I married Shari Lynn in June of 2007 and we welcomed our first child, Hatlee, in April of 2010.

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