HANCEVILLE – Fairview got a very good test from Cold Springs in the Cullman County junior varsity volleyball championship Thursday at Lane Horton Gymnasium, but the No. 1 seed Lady Aggies made the plays and topped the No. 2 Lady Eagles 25-18, 25-23 to take home the championship hardware.
Fairview had a much easier route to the championship than Cold Springs. The Lady Aggies swept 4th seed West Point in the semifinals 25-14, 25-14.
Cold Springs was challenged strongly by No. 7 Vinemont. The Cold Springs Lady Eagles pulled it out in the quarterfinals 25-17 and 26-24.
Then Cold Springs got challenged once more by upset-minded Good Hope. The 6th seeded Lady Raiders stunned No. 3 Holly Pond 25-11, 25-22 and were on the brink of doing it to Cold Springs.
After Good Hope tied the match with a 25-22 victory in the second set, Cold Springs regrouped and defeated the Lady Raiders in the tiebreaker, 15-9.
The championship match was well fought between the top two programs from regular season play. Cold Springs went ahead 3-0 then Fairview came back and led for the first time at 6-5.
Cold Springs had another run, with service points by Kyleigh Merring and a kill from Kylon Hamby to lead 9-6.
Fairview answered by tying the score at 12-12 on a kill from Daisy Monasco. Service points by Katie Ball and Isabella McGukin ignited the team to move the margin to 20-14.
Cold Springs tried to keep it close, getting within 24-18 when the Lady Eagles served the ball out of bounds to give a point to Fairview and victory in the first set.
It was a repeat start for the Lady Eagles in the second set. A 4-1 lead thanks to two service points by Victoria Freeman and Hayden Goodwin was short-lived. After Fairview cut it to 6-4, Cold Springs had the advantage at 11-8 when a serve by Morgan Harris was played by Fairview, but hit the antenna and was called out-of-bounds.
Cold Springs took a 17-13 lead on a service point by Goodwin with a kill from Hamby as Fairview coach Anna Mangum asked for a timeout.
The timeout got her team regrouped, with Fairview going ahead on three service points by Monasco and a volley by McGukin. They never trailed the rest of the set.
It was 19-18, then Fairview had back-to-back kills by Monasco and McGukin off serves from Ball to move within a point of taking the match at 24-21. Cold Springs broke service and scored twice on serves from Emi Harbison that narrowed it to 24-23.
However, Harbison served the ball into the net and it was match point for Fairview. The second set was played in 23 minutes with the two games taking 48 minutes to be played.
Monasco had seven kills in the match to spark the Lady Aggies; Ball scored 10 points on serve.
Harbison led Cold Springs with seven service points while Hamby, Merring and Goodwin played well on the front line.
Coaches All-County team:
- Trinity Guthrey – Hanceville
- Gracie Thomas – Holly Pond
- Rachel Hall – Vinemont
- Sarah Chapman – West Point
- Daisy Monasco – Fairview
- Hayden Goodwin – Cold Springs
- Kierra Merriweather – Hanceville
- Natalie Pearce – West Point
- Jordan Moore – Fairview
- Kylon Hamby – Cold Springs
- Rebekah Crauswell – Good Hope
- Alee Jackson – Good Hope
- Micah Means – Fairview
- Kyleigh Merring – Cold Springs
- Emi Harbison – Cold Springs
- Katie Ball – Fairview
The varsity county tournament will be Monday and Tuesday at Lane Horton Gym. Fairview is the top seed with West Point second and defending county champion Good Hope third.
The games will begin at 2 p.m. on dual courts with the format to be double-elimination. A champion will be crowned at either 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. Tuesday.
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