HOOVER – The Thompson Warriors put together one of their most dominant performances of the season to put them three wins away from a state championship, sweeping the Vestavia Hills Rebels on Wednesday, Oct. 21 at Hoover's Finley Center.
That preceded a true battle between two of the state's elite, one Thompson won in four sets thanks to a 26-24 fourth-set victory.
They were a pair of performances that helped Judy Green see what her team was made of going into the state tournament.
"I feel like that we have something unique," Green said. "Like, we have a great will to want to win for each other. And sometimes, you just have to find a way."
The Warriors and Rebels were close throughout the start of the first set as Vestavia led 5-4. That's when Thompson won three-straight points to take an 8-5 lead and force a Rebels timeout.
The Warriors held on to their slim lead through the next few points before beginning to pull away at the 15-10 mark. The lead grew to double digits at 22-11 before Thompson closed out the first set with a 25-12 win.
The second set was a dominant affair with the Warriors winning the first two points and reaching the halfway mark first with a 15-7 lead. Three-straight points put Thompson's lead at 20-8 and the Warriors looked poised to finish off the set.
However, Vestavia mounted a fierce rally to win five-straight and force a timeout. A back-and-forth stretch let Thompson win the set 25-17, but the Rebels outscored them 9-5 once the Warriors hit 20 points.
That momentum carried into the third set and left the teams deadlocked at 18-18 entering the final stretch. A service error set up Thompson to win five-straight points and go up 23-18.
Vestavia got the next two points to force another timeout, but the Warriors got a kill out of the stoppage to set up match point. Thompson took that to win the set 25-18.
Green was pleased with the Warriors' start in the match and how they relied on their offense to keep the Rebels from getting more momentum in the game.
"I think one, winning the first set against Vestavia was huge for us, because I feel like it just kept them from having confidence to be able to hang around in the match," Green said. "And they fought hard, they did. But offensively, we were just clicking, and, when we're clicking, and we're so balanced offensively, Brielle Merriweather was outstanding, she was an animal today, and she led the way for us offensively."
In the Buckhorn match, the Warriors were tightly matched with the Bucks through the first points. Thompson flipped a 9-7 deficit into an 11-9 lead with Maddy Henderson on the line and was ahead the rest of the set, but Buckhorn never went away.
Madelyn Fox helped grow that cushion with an ace before the Bucks had to call timeout down 20-16. The Warriors maintained that advantage through the end and won 25-21 on a service error.
While Thompson won the first two points of the second set, Buckhorn raced ahead to a 7-4 lead to force a timeout. The Warriors could never truly recover though as the Bucks responded to any point Thompson won.
The Warriors briefly had a window when an ace tied the set at 21-21 and they took the lead following the ensuing timeout. However, Thompson's 23-22 lead disappeared and a 3-0 Buckhorn run tipped the set in its favor for a 25-23 win to tie the match.
The Warriors emerged from a 4-4 tie to take a 6-4 lead in the third and never trailed from there. A Kori Bond ace increased the lead to 9-5 going into a Bucks timeout.
Thompson remained in control with a 13-8 lead before Buckhorn cut it to 13-10, forcing a timeout. The Bucks tied it at 14-14 to force another stoppage, but the Warriors won the next five points to regain control.
Thompson didn't look back from there and won the third set by a score of 25-17.
Buckhorn bounced back by taking a 5-2 lead and forced an early Warriors timeout. Thompson remained in striking distance, and a Bucks service error set up a 4-0 run for the lead by the Warriors.
Thompson almost ended a back-and-forth stretch by going up 17-14 before Buckhorn tied it at 17-17. Taylor Wall and Maddy Henderson had crucial kills to tie up the match and prevent the Bucks from running away. While Buckhorn got on set point at 24-23, Merriweather answered with a kill to send it to extras.
Riley Lingo came up with an ace on the next serve, and a Warriors kill sealed the 26-24 win to put them in the regional finals.
After the match, Green tipped her cap to the Bucks for challenging her team to adjust and adapt to a potent back row. She credited her team for finding a way to win in a game that they didn't play to their potential.
"Buckhorn's a great volleyball team," Green said. "They posed a lot of different scenarios than us, and you don't have a lot of time to scout or prep for them, but we did a really good job of figuring out our blocking and our defense against, really, their back ones. Their back ones hurt us early on, but we hung in there. Didn't serve the greatest today, but we got the points when we needed to get the points."
Thompson is now guaranteed a spot in the state quarterfinals on Oct. 28 at the Birmingham CrossPlex, but its opponent will be decided based on its result in the regional championship against Bob Jones on Thursday, Oct. 22 at 9 a.m. at the Finley Center.
She believes matches like the one against Spain Park, where the Warriors rallied for a reverse sweep in the area finals, and the Buckhorn match help make them into a better team. Her goal is for her team to fight hard and be resilient down the stretch in order to one-up last year and end up as champions.
"Look, everybody's fighting for their seasons, right?" Green said. "Everybody has the same goal at this point. And it's just the team that can just hang in there and just be relentless. And that's who we want to be."
