Staff Reports
ANNISTON – After losing six seniors from back-to-back Class 1A state championship teams, it’s taken a while this season for the Spring Garden Lady Panthers to get back to the caliber volleyball they’re used to playing.
But on Tuesday night in the Class 1A, Area 12 tournament at Faith Christian in Anniston, this year’s Lady Panther squad showed that it’s finally establishing its own identity.
Spring Garden outlasted Faith Christian in five sets to win another area championship. The scores were16-25, 25-23, 25-16, 14-25 and 15-12.
The Lady Panthers (14-19) will now head back to the North Super Regional at the Finley Center in Hoover. They’ll take on the Area 14 runner-up on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m.
“They’ve actually bought in to ‘I’ve got to keep improving,’ and it just all kind of come together today,” Spring Garden head coach Ricky Austin said. “We saw a little bit of it this past weekend in a tournament at Supreme Court (in Guntersville). We felt like we played some of our better volleyball all year.
“We felt pretty good coming into tonight, but this bunch has never gone on the road and had to play in front of an environment like we had to play in front of tonight. It was loud. It was intense. They had to overcome more battles than just playing a good team. They had to handle all of that, but we haven’t really been tested on that.”
Austin attributed a big part of Tuesday’s area title to state championship holdovers Montana Highfield, Hollis Jane Petty, and Lacie Jo McMurray.
“Their leadership and their experience from being there (in state championship matches) in the past was something that gave us a solid foundation tonight,” Austin said.
Spring Garden opened area tournament play on Tuesday against Jacksonville Christian. The Lady Panthers swept the Thunder 25-9, 25-23, 25-21 to advance to the area title match against Faith Christian.
For the day, Highfield delivered 15 kills and seven blocks. McMurray managed 11 digs. Lleyton Carroll collected 56 assists and a pair of aces. Aubrey Kelley contributed 19 kills. Kylie Bates came away with 11 kills. Addie Word added 11 kills and seven blocks. Gracie Simpson finished with 13 digs.
“It’s almost like we’ve been through two new teams this year with as many kids as I’ve pulled up from JV from where we started,” Austin said. “We started out with 10 girls and now I’ve got 15 dressed out. All 15 have been on the court at some point trying to figure this thing out.”
And now, Austin feels the Lady Panthers are playing their best volleyball of the season.
“It did take a while because we’ve just got so many new faces. The kids have moved to multiple positions from what we started on in July, but the last two weeks I’ve felt like things have finally started to settle down,” Austin said. “We’ve started to figure things out. We’re just now starting to identify roles on this team. It’s been a lengthy process. It’s taken us a while to get to this point, but I’m very proud of them.”
