Elmore County volleyball rode into its 16th consecutive AHSAA 5A Regional volleyball tournament appearance last week in Montgomery.
The Panthers knew what they were walking into Thursday. Despite walking into a loud environment that caused some teams to become overwhelmed, the same could not be said for the Panthers who know what it takes to be successful in regionals. However, there were still some nerves considering what was at stake.
“(The girls) still get nervous; I still get nervous; we all still get nervous,” ECHS coach Kim Moncrief said. “But it does help to come here and play; they've seen it before. The underclassmen of most, most of them, have come on this journey, and they see what it's like. They see the crowd. They know it's going to be loud. They know about the sport-court and the sport-court rules because that's a little bit different than playing in a wide-open gym.”
Elmore County kicked off the tournament against Citronelle in the first round of the tournament. Even though the team has been plagued with slow starts through the season, it did not seem that way in the first set where Elmore County dominated, 25-15.
However, Citronelle fought back in the second set ultimately taking the win, 26-24. Elmore County responded by dominating the next two sets, 25-13 and 25-17, punching its ticket to the second round of the tournament. The outside hitters of Allyson Orr, Isabella Fuller, Addison Hicks and Lalah Cullpepper provided the kick Elmore County needed to advance.
“It took us a few minutes to get warmed up,” Moncrief said. “We still are going to need to play a little bit better in the next round to move on, but they did what they needed to do to get the job done. I think we'll come back in the second game a lot stronger.”
Elmore County was originally supposed to kick off the second round against Demopolis at 2:45 p.m., but due to the tournament being delayed the team did not take the court for warmups until 6 p.m.
The break between matches proved to be costly for the Panthers. Even though they kept it close in the first set, they ultimately fell, 25-23. The second proved to be much the same with the Tigers getting the upper hand at 25-15.
Despite surrendering two consecutive sets, Elmore County would not go down without a fight. The third set was a constant back and forth between, where the final score went into additional points with Demopolis capping it off with a 30-28 victory.
“Our girls have an incredible amount of fight and I knew they were going to play to the last point and they did,” Moncrief said. “I mean, for the third set to go to 30, I couldn't ask for more than that; they just battled hard.”
Even with the season ending the way it did, Elmore County is consistently one of the top teams in Class 5A. The team has won the area title for 15 straight seasons and made it to regionals 16 times in a row. While Elmore County does lose some valuable pieces in seniors Orr, Addilyn Tierce, Kennedy Robinson and Elizabeth Lyons, the rest of the team was full of juniors and sophomores who played a key role in the success this season.
