In the class 3A area 1 volleyball tournament Monday at Bayside Academy in Daphne, T.R. Miller went 1-1 in the tournament and finished as area runner-up.
The Lady Tigers improved their record to 24-4 as they defeated Clarke County 3-1 in the first game to advance to the championship game against No. 1 Bayside.
In the championship game, the Lady Tigers lost 3-0 to finish as runner-up.
Against Clarke County, T.R. Miller lost set one 25-21 before winning set two 25-4, set three 26-24 and set four 25-15 to get the win.
In set one, Amber Nelson had six service points and Moriah Brundidge and Taylor Guthrie had four points each. Leah Brundidge and Lauren Ward had three points each.
In game two, Amber Nelson had 17 straight service points and Karisa Nelson had five straight.
In game three, Karisa Nelson had seven service points along with six from Guthrie and five from Leah Brundidge and Amber Nelson.
In game four, Leah Brundidge and Amber Nelson had six service points each and Guthrie and Karisa Nelson had five. Moriah Brundidge had two points in the win.
“We played pretty well against CCHS,” T.R. Miller Lady Tiger head coach Greg White said. “The first game was very tight and they just made a couple more plays than we did. After that we found some weak spots in their defense and were very aggressive in our hitting. We are glad to have the opportunity to keep playing. A lot of schools across the state had their seasons end tonight. We are going to go into the regional tournament and give it all we got and try and make the most of our opportunity.”
Against Bayside, T.R. Miller lost 3-0. The Lady Tigers lost 25-7 in set one and 25-10 in sets two and three.
Guthrie had 15 kills and eight blocks in the three sets and Amber Nelson had 14 kills and six blocks. Leah Brundidge had five kills and Karisa Nelson had 21 assists.
Bayside is a nine-time consecutive state title winner. With the win, the Admirals improved to 46-7.
Both Bayside and T.R. Miller will move on to the 3A regional volleyball tournament Saturday at Montgomery Academy. Bayside Academy meets Trinity at 10 a.m. T.R. Miller will take on 29-10 Montgomery Academy, the area 4 champion, at 11:15 a.m. in the regional tournament.
“I just wanted the kids to get in there and compete with them,” White said of the loss to Bayside. “I just wanted them to do the best that they could. We just have to regroup for Saturday now. We made too many mistakes against a good team tonight. The scoreboard didn’t really show it though but I thought our team played hard against them, better than we did the last time that we played them.”
T.R. Miller finished as one of the top four teams at regionals last year to advance to sub state where they won to make the first trip to the Elite 8 in school history.
At the Elite 8 in Pelham, T.R. Miller lost to Ashville.