HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL: Enterprise dominates in winning Class 7A, Area 4 Tournament
The Enterprise volleyball team established the tone of Wednesday's Class 7A, Area 4 championship match against Prattville from the opening serve.
The Wildcats came out roaring and never really stopped during a mostly commanding 25-8, 25-14, 25-20 win over the Lions at the Enterprise High gym.
The victory gave Enterprise its 10th area tournament title in the last 11 years and its 46th in the last 48 years.
The Wildcats (34-10) and the Lions (13-19) both advanced to next week's South Super Regional Tournament in Montgomery. Enterprise opens play Wednesday at 2 p.m. against Daphne, the Area 1 Tournament runner-up. Prattville faces top-ranked McGill-Toolen in its opener.
Both teams won semifinal matches prior to the finals. Prattville eliminated Dothan in five sets, 25-22, 21-25, 20-25, 25-21, 15-9, while Enterprise took a 25-11, 25-8, 25-10 win over Carver of Montgomery after the Wolverines beat J.A.G. in a five-set match in the tournament opener.
Enterprise seeks to advance out of the regional to the state tournament. A year ago, EHS advanced, but lost in the state semifinals.
"I am excited for these girls," Enterprise head coach Jen Graham said. "They worked hard this offseason. Today was about getting better and preparing for the next step. Everybody contributed and we had people playing different positions. Some of the younger girls got playing time, which was nice."
Graham added Wildcat players are primed for the regional, especially the team's seniors, who want to eliminate the sour taste of losing in last year's state semifinals.
"The passion is there to get one step further of winning it all and making school history," Graham said. "That is what they have been talking about in the locker room."
The Wildcats showed intensity from the start of the championship match against Prattville, seizing a 12-2 lead through the first two service rotations. Junior Lauren Kinney set the tone with two aces to start the match as EHS built a 4-0 lead in her rotation.
"You always what to start with a good serve to throw them (the other team) off balance and get you a good ball (for the hitters) to go back with," Kinney said. "You want to get your serves in and get it to the right spot, which gives your team the advantage."
Ella Blackstock opened the second rotation by adding two aces during a string of seven straight points as EHS built the 12-2 advantage.
Kinney and Blackstock had strong serving performances during the match. Kinney had five aces and Blackstock two, but more importantly the two delivered quality serves that the Lions had a hard time dealing with during the match.
"Lauren Kinney and Ella Blackstock just had awesome serving today," Graham said. "They stepped up for us, hitting their spots. It was the short floaty serve is what they are doing and that is tough to do. They have been working on perfecting that."
Enterprise had 12 aces overall in the match. Earlier in the semifinal against Carver, the Wildcats amassed more double-digit aces, including seven from Blackstock.
"On serving spots, we were probably at 90 percent of where we were supposed to be," Graham said of servers hitting their designed spots on the floor. "There were very few missed serves, so that is awesome. Yesterday, we did a long 12-minute drill non-stop of jump serving and they had to hit so many spots. We really focused on that yesterday for today."
Graham added, "We were able to keep both teams with giving us a free ball every other ball and that helped us be able to work on our offense, speeding it up."
The Wildcats' powerful hitters capitalized, smashing down hard kills throughout the day, especially in the championship against Prattville. Virginia Townsend had 10 kills in the finals match, while Morgan Williams, Abigial Wiggins and Jadyn Britton all had seven kills.
After seizing the 12-2 lead in the first set, the 'Cats were never threatened, pulling away to a 25-8 set win.
Enterprise seized a 3-0 lead to start the second set behind two kills by Townsend, but Prattville rallied to take leads of 4-3 and 5-4. The Wildcats, though, took control during Sydney Neuwien's service rotation, scoring eight straight points for a 13-5 lead. Monika Howard had two kills off assists from Neuwien, who also earned two aces.
The Lions got as close as five points in the set, but Enterprise pulled away, scoring 11 of the last 16 points for a 25-14 win.
In the third set, Prattville had an early lead, but the Wildcats overtook the margin midway and held a 21-17 lead after a strong serve by Townsend was unplayable by Prattville.
The Lions, though, fought back cutting it to one at 21-20 following a kill by Breeze McGee. However, Enterprise scored four of the next five points, mostly on Prattville hitting errors, though Townsend had a kill.
In addition to earning a team-high five aces, Kinney also had a team-high 19 assists plus three digs for EHS. Neuwien delivered 12 assists. Blackstock had a team-high nine digs, while Karsyn Hamm and Hannah Napoli had three digs each.
"It means so much (to win the area) as we have worked so hard this whole season," Enterprise's Kinney said. "I can't wait to see us going forward with it."
Enterprise downs Carver: In the 25-11, 25-8, 25-10 semifinal win over Carver, Williams, Wiggins and Britton all had seven kills with Wiggins also earning four aces and three digs. Kinney had 14 assists and Neuwien 10 assists. Blackstock, in addition to her team-high seven aces, had a team-high seven digs. Hamm added four digs.
Dothan season ends: Dothan held a 2-1 sets lead, but Prattville rallied for the 25-22, 21-25, 20-25, 25-21, 15-9 five-set win to end the Wolves season.
Dothan finished the season with a 12-12 record.
Catherine Farmer delivered 33 assists and five kills, Maggie Benton amassed 11 kills, seven blocks and 11 digs and Mary Beth Arnold had 12 kills, three aces and two blocks for DHS.
Also for the Wolves, Brantlee McCarthy had seven kills and five aces, Karas Lucas had seven kills and Mariyah Stampley had two aces, two kills and three digs. Ashlynn Sasser added three digs.
