A year after going 0-3 in Escambia County Tournament play and finishing in fourth place, the W.S. Neal Lady Eagles took second place to T.R. Miller Saturday as they finished with a 2-1 record. Overall, W.S. Neal improved to 4-5 overall.
The Lady Eagles took down Flomaton 2-0 (25-15, 25-12) and Escambia County 2-0 (25-12, 25-15) before falling to T.R. Miller 0-2 (25-22, 25-22).
W.S. Neal head coach Jason Blaney said he thought the tournament went great for his team and he is excited to see what the rest of the season has in store.
“First I would like to congratulate Coach (Greg) White, the Lady Tigers and all their fans,” Blaney said. “Winning their 10th straight county championship is amazing. Winning 10 straight championships at any level is an incredible feat. We came into tournament with some goals. We wanted to play a lot better then we did last year (0-3) and put ourselves in contention to try and end Miller’s run. We definitely played better and come out very strong.”
Blaney said his team finished off Flomaton and Atmore very quickly, but against T.R. Miller, the Lady Tigers showed why they have won 10 straight championships.
“We played Flomaton and Atmore about as good as we could, and was able to beat those very good teams very efficiently and in timely fashion,” he said. “We went up against Miller and just struggled, and Miller showed why they are the champions as they turned it on to another level. It was a great tournament and I was proud of how the Lady Eagles performed. I am very excited about the rest of the season for us.”
In set one against Flomaton, Tykeria Nolan had five service points and one kill while Dinah Samuel had three service points, one ace and one kill. Jodi Busby had two kills and two service points in the win.
Karissa Johnson finished with four service points and one ace while Haleigh Dubose had four service points and one ace.
Tiffany Robinson had one kill.
In set two against Flomaton, Busby led with two kills and six service points to end the game. Johnson had six service points and one ace in the win.
Against Escambia County in set one, Nolan had five service points while Dubose finished with four and one ace along with one kill.
In set two, Dubose led with six service points and two aces.
In the set one loss to T.R. Miller, Samuel finished with four kills and four service points while Johnson had four service points, two aces and one kill.
In the set two loss, Nolan had three service points while Busby had four along with Samuel.