Area championship belongs to Spartans

The Mountain Brook High School volleyball team easily secured its berth in the Super Regionals with an opening round sweep of Huffman in the Class 7A, Area 6 tournament on Monday afternoon.

But head coach Haven O'Quinn had no urge to let her team relax before the area championship game against Oak Mountain, who advanced by way of a 3-0 win as well over Spain Park.

A logjam in Class 7A, Area 8 shook things up. Bob Jones and James Clemens have been considered the top two teams in that area throughout the season, but James Clemens ended up with the No. 4 seed and the two teams were forced to play in the first round of the area tournament. 

Bob Jones eventually swept Sparkman in the area title match, making the difference in quality of opponent slightly more obvious than if James Clemens had also advanced.

"Now more than ever, there’s a lot of significance in coming out winner to runner up," O'Quinn said. "But you have to find the line of telling that to your girls, because you can’t freak them out and they can’t be thinking it’s do or die.

"It’s not do or die by any means, because you’ve got to play everybody across the net. But the first round is huge, with us not having home crowd advantage in Huntsville."

Huntsville is where the super regionals will be held Thursday and Friday, with the top two finishers in each area tournament advancing there.

The Spartans (39-7) swept Huffman 3-0 (25-5, 25-6, 25-16) to advance to the finals of the tournament against Oak Mountain. The Eagles posed a much tougher test, but Mountain Brook was able to take control of the match in the final two sets and win 3-1 (25-17, 23-25, 25-16, 25-17).

"The players, that was one of their goals from the beginning of the year, was they wanted to go undefeated in area and they wanted to win the area tournament," O'Quinn said.

Emmy Kilgore continued to prove herself as a lethal hitter from the outside, finishing with 25 kills over the two matches. Freshman Grace Carr and senior Caroline Davies each registered 16 kills. Davies and Ellie Ritter each ended up with three blocks. Libero Lacey Jeffcoat and Libby Grace Gann contributed four aces apiece, while KayKay Benck had three.

Jeffcoat and Gann proved they are two of the best at what they do, as Jeffcoat wrapped up her evening with 37 digs, while Gann racked up an impressive 71 assists. Mimi Meadows finished with nine kills, 10 digs and four blocks.

Mountain Brook will take on Sparkman at 2 p.m. Thursday in the South Hall of the Von Braun Center in Huntsville. The Spartans will need one win in Huntsville to qualify for the state tournament at the Birmingham CrossPlex.