Not just another championship match: Spartans sweep McGill, win state title

BIRMINGHAM – It was just another championship match.

At least that’s what Mountain Brook High School volleyball coach Vickie Nichols told her team before the match. After all, the Spartans had been in eight tournament finals already during the 2019 season. And they had won six of them.

But following the Spartans’ triumph over McGill-Toolen in straight sets (25-21, 28-26, 25-23) in the Class 7A final on Thursday afternoon at Bill Harris Arena, the celebration seemed to show something else.

It was far more than just another championship match.

This one was three years in the making. After winning three straight 7A titles from 2014-16, Nichols took the reins and was tasked with the nearly impossible task of keeping the blue maps coming at the same rate. The Spartans were eliminated in the state semifinals by the same McGill-Toolen program in 2017 and 2018.

“I am just super proud of these girls,” said Nichols, as she fought back tears of joy in the postgame press conference. “They’ve worked so hard for three years to get to this point, and they did it.”

The senior class — Grace Carr, Ann Vandevelde, Liz Vandevelde, MK Fowlkes and Kate Amberson — was in ninth grade the last time the Spartans hoisted the trophy. 

“It was frustration from the years before,” Ann Vandevelde said following the match. “We had the talent, we just didn’t do it. We said, We’re not letting that happen again. Whatever it takes, we’re going to fight and win this.'”

Mountain Brook (59-7) and the Dirty Dozen had faced off twice before during the season, with McGill-Toolen (39-10) winning in the first match of the season and Mountain Brook winning in the Margaret Blalock Tournament.

“We’ve done what we did all season, it wasn’t just a one-time thing,” Nichols said. “It wasn’t by accident. We played calm and steady. … We weren’t nervous.”

Mountain Brook won in three sets, but it was far from easy. The Spartans led nearly wire-to-wire in the first set, but were forced to rally in the second and third sets. In the second, McGill-Toolen staved off four set points and had a set point of its own before Mountain Brook prevailed. In the third, Mountain Brook overcame an 18-15 deficit to win the match.

Fowlkes pointed to the Spartans digging out of a 15-point hole against Hoover in the North Super Regional tournament a week prior as a turning point in the team’s belief that it could overcome anything.

“All year we’ve sort of struggled with fighting, coming back and having confidence in ourselves,” Carr added. “We learned how to trust each other and channel all our energy. We knew we would do it and stayed calm.”

On Wednesday, Mountain Brook earned wins over Auburn (3-0) and Hoover (3-1) to secure its spot in the final for the first time in three years.

Front-line players Ann Vandevelde, Fowlkes and Carr were named to the all-tournament team, with Carr winning Most Valuable Player honors. But they were insistent the victory was a total team effort.

“We couldn’t have done it without our defensive line,” said Ann Vandevelde, a setter who notched 33 assists in the match. “Our defense is amazing. All the other teams don’t have the serve receive and defense that we have. When we got down, it was our front row. Our defense was calm and kept bringing us up. It wasn’t one specific player or another, but everyone came together.”

In the match, Liz Vandevelde anchored the defense with 22 digs and was aided by Carr (19 digs) and Evelyn King (18 digs). Carr led the offensive charge with 14 kills, and Fowlkes added 10 kills. Celie Field and Ann Vandevelde each had eight kills. Greer Golden added four kills, four assist blocks and a solo block. Hannah Hitson registered three kills, and Amberson had four digs.

Throughout the year, Mountain Brook won the Juanita Boddie, Rocky Top, HeffStrong, Margaret Blalock, Area 6 and North Super Regional tournaments. The state tournament was the icing on the cake.

“It just means so much,” Fowlkes said. “We left it all out on the court.”

She stopped there, as the weight of the moment sunk in.

Perhaps it was more than just another championship match.

Click here to view photos from the match.