HOOVER – Having exerted a lot of energy and passion throughout their day at the Finley Center, the Thompson Warriors headed back to Alabaster on the night of Wednesday, Oct. 22 having achieved their biggest goal of the day—secure a spot in the state tournament.  After a long day of volleyball, Thompson officially split two games in the super regionals, defeating the Vestavia Hills Rebels 3-0 in the morning before being taken down by the Austin Black Bears 3-2 in the evening. It put the Warriors in a position where they were fighting to be the No. 3 seed in their game on Thursday, Oct. 23. Nonetheless though, it was a day they felt proud of.  "You've got to throw everything you've got into that first match because you've got to get past the first match in order to make it to the Elite Eight, and that was one of our goals was to get past the first match," said Thompson head coach Judy Green. "The second match, we're playing for seeding right? We're trying our best to not be that (No. 4) seed on the North side. In the Vestavia match, I felt like we just didn't let them in it. Passing and serving were terrific and our defense was really good."  The defense was indeed a highlight of the match, getting increasingly better with each set. However, that did not come without some pushback from Vestavia Hills.   In the first game of the day against the Rebels, both teams knew right from the opening serve that this game would test the other side mightily, and that it did. Neither team got up by more than two points until Thompson scored back-to-back points in the late stages of the set to put it up 20-17, causing Vestavia Hills to call a timeout.  The Rebels bounced back with two points of their own to close the score to 20-19 and forcing a Warriors timeout. Just moments later though at 22-21 in favor of Thompson, a crucial Vestavia Hills service error put the score at 23-21, which was ultimately all the Warriors needed as they made the final push to end the first set with a 25-23 win.  The Rebels responded in the second set though, as after they went down 3-0 early, they fought back later to take a 12-9 lead.   Six consecutive points soon after saw Thompson take the lead back at 18-14 however, and it never looked back. The Warriors scored the final seven points they needed, including four consecutive at the end to go up two sets, winning 25-19.  The defense began to build up a high amount of momentum as a result, helping Thompson to cruise in the third set.  After scoring seven-straight points to go up 12-5, the block party came to town, as Ada Hasenbein, Riley Lingo and Brielle Merriweather all came away with blocks to propel the Warriors to an 18-9 lead.  A Vestavia Hills timeout put a pause to the drive the Warriors were on, but that did not stop them from continuing to play in smooth fashion to win 25-16, secure a sweep and punch a ticket to the state playoffs.  What awaited Thompson though was a challenge where it needed all its strength, facing an Austin squad also coming off a sweep of Opelika.  After taking a 2-1 lead in the first set of the night, the Warriors faced adversity early as Jayla Green went down with an injury, forcing her out of the rest of the game. However, having sensed early success in the match, Thompson did not bat an eye, eventually building up a lead as large as nine points at 19-10 and not looking back. The Warriors took the first set 25-20 as a result.  The second set presented difficulty however, as Thompson really started to miss one of their best hitters. Austin went up 4-0 before the Warriors came back to tie it. Unfortunately, that did not last long, as the Black Bears responded to build a 9-5 lead.  That was the theme of the entire second set, as later after Thompson tied things again at 15 each, Austin busted the door open and ran away with the momentum, securing a 25-20 win in the second set.  Tied at one set each, the Warriors had to bounce back, and in the beginning of the third set, they did. After building up a 6-2 lead to kick things off though, the Black Bears stormed back to make things a battle, and both teams passed scoring streaks around to settle at 18-18.  That theme carried on into the final parts of the set where it got to 23-23, but it was ultimately Austin finding open holes in Thompson's formations that earned it a 25-23 win, putting the Black Bears up 2-1.  The fourth set's competitive levels were much of the same, and the Warriors kept the fight up. After going back and forth to get things to 5-5 in the early going, two energetic blocks by Maddy Henderson helped carry momentum to give Thompson a 22-17 lead.  That made all the difference in sending the game to a fifth set, as the Warriors won 25-20 on an ace to tie the set score up at 2-2.  In the moment, Thompson seemed like it had all momentum on its side, but fatigue set in after a long day for both squads.  In the end, after trading punches to put the score at 4-4 in the deciding set, Austin made a loud run to push the score up in their favor at 12-5.  However, despite the Warriors best comeback efforts, it was a deficit too large to overcome, seeing the Black Bears win 15-11 in the fifth set and taking the match 3-2.  Without one of their leaders, Green knew it was going to be tough for her girls to bounce back. Despite that though, she was proud of the group for sticking to the things they had practiced all year long.  "Any time you have adversity and you lose one of your key players very early in the match, it takes you a while to make an adjustment," Green said. "It took us a while to get the pieces right so we could find some rhythm. Our trainers will check her out and see how she is and the goal is to get her back as quickly as we can. But what that did is it took our two most productive point scorers offensively out of that role, and for us to get to five (sets) without that was pretty amazing today. We had a lot of kids step up in roles they hadn't been in, and that's the beauty of our team."  Thompson returns to the Finley Center early in the morning on Thursday, Oct. 23, when it will take on the Bob Jones Patriots in a match for the No. 3 seed in their side of the bracket. The match will begin at 8:30 a.m.

Read more at: https://www.shelbycountyreporter.com/2025/10/22/thompson-earns-spot-in-state-tournament-splits-two-games-in-super-regionals/