Mountain Brook wins Class 7A state volleyball championship

The Mountain Brook High volleyball team has been excellent all year. But it’s never played better than it has in the past few weeks.

The Lady Spartans capped an amazing season with a 3-1 victory over Hoover in the finals of the state volleyball championships at CrossPlex in Birmingham. Mountain Brook won 25-16, 25-20, 18-25, 25-10 over the their archrival – which had swept the Lady Spartans home and home in the regular season.

It is Mountain Brook’s first state championship in volleyball.

Sara Carr was named the tournament’s most valuable player, and she was joined on the all-tournament team by teammates Julia Smith and Sara Chandler Mitchell.

“I know this sounds corny,” said Mountain Brook coach Haven O’Quinn, “but these girls are a family on and off the court. They really like each other. Chemistry and unity are so important. We knew it was not going to be easy. This is the most special group I’ve ever worked with.

“They’ve had a common goal, and from the beginning we’ve never had a lull.”

The season seemed to turn with a win over No. 1 Bob Jones in the Margaret Blalock tournament at Homewood. Then the Spartans faced Bob Jones again in the North Super Regionals and won and captured the Super Regional with a win over Hoover.

O’Quinn said beating a team like Bob Jones three times was a monumental task, but not one she burdened her girls with.

“Heading into the Margaret Blalock tournament is when you can get kind of tight – it’s the last big regular season tournament – but that’s when we seemed to accelerate and started playing with so much confidence.

“I’ve heard it from a lot of people: ‘Your team is so loose, they seem to have so much fun.’ And that is created from the very beginning from the very first practice in the gym. I think you have to set the tone for what it’s going to be. I think by the time we got to the playoffs, we were ready.”

Carr had 16 kills to earn the MVP honors. “We’re doing it for the team,” Carr said. “I think we wanted it so bad for our team and for our community. To see every one of your teammates smiling, that’s the sweetest joy I’ve ever felt.”

Mountain Brook’s Mitchell contributed 38 assists while Emmy Kilgore had eight kills, and Abby Garrett and Peyton Selman had seven kills apiece. Smith added 21 digs.

Hoover coach Chris Camper said his team just didn’t execute when it needed to. The Lady Bucs made a run to win the third game, but they couldn’t keep the momentum.

Camper called Mountain Brook’s Smith, the Lady Spartans’ libero, “the best player in Alabama at any position.” “We tried to keep it away from her. They’ve got some youth on the back that we’d been able to take advantage of before, but today they passed well. I think that was a big part of the difference.

“Today was about execution,” Camper said. “More than anything else, Mountain Brook passed better. They were better than us today. They executed at a higher level.”

Camper noted that even though he had five seniors, the Lady Bucs were basically a young team that hadn’t been in this position before.

“I’m proud of our girls’ effort and energy, but we just couldn’t execute today.”

Hoover’s Ali Lowe had 13 kills and Kathryn Cather had 13 assists, 11 digs and eight kills.

Lowe and Cather were also on the all-tourney team, along with McGill-Toolen’s Abby Hutchens and Bob Jones’ Haley Hop.