Photo: The Westbrook Christian volleyball team gathers for a photo after defeating Glencoe in the finals of the Class 3A, Area 11 Tournament last Wednesday (Oct. 13), in Rainbow City. Pictured, front row, from left: Kylee Wyatt, Brielle Wood, Taylor Meador, Ellison Stewart. Back row, from left: assistant coach Dale Beason, assistant coach Courtlyn Barber, Henley Beddingfield, Reece Waid, Marley Cox, Landri Lipscomb, Raegan Harrell, Raylee Neal, Sara Cate Windle, head coach Denise Mattison. (Chris McCarthy/Messenger)
By Chris McCarthy, Publisher/Editor
Last Wednesday (Oct. 13), The Westbrook Christian volleyball team removed another item from its to-do list for the 2022 season.
The Class 3A No. 9 Lady Warriors (35-5) swept Glencoe, 25-16, 25-15, 31-29 in the finals of the Area 11 tournament in Rainbow City.
It was Westbrook’s first area tournament championship in four years. Both Westbrook and Glencoe advance to the Super Regional Tournament next week. The Lady Wa-rriors will face Colbert County on Thursday, October 20 at 9 a.m. at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville.
Westbrook head coach Denise Madison, who took over the program in March of 2021, was proud of her team for fighting back from an 18-13 deficit in Game 3 and facing defeat in match point at least four times.
“They’ve been doing that a lot lately, so it wasn’t too much of surprise tonight,” she said. “But the girls showed a lot of composure, much more than you would think given that we’ve only got two seasons (Brielle Wood and Taylor Meador). They didn’t get rattled when they were down, and you just knew that they would somehow find a way to pull through. This group knows how to take care of business and then have some fun.”
For Westbrook in the championship match, Raylee Neal had 14 digs and four assists; Brielle Wood had 32 assists, five kills, six digs and four aces; Raegan Harrell had eight kills and eight digs; Kylee Wyatt had 11 digs and two kills; Landri Lipscomb had 11 kills and two digs; Marely Cox had seven kills and 11 digs; Taylor Meador had seven kills and four digs; Henley Beddingfield had 11 digs and Ellison Stewart had seven kills.
Named to the All-Tournament team were Brielle Wood, Taylor Meador, Raylee Neal, Kylee Wyatt and Raegan Ha-rrell from Westbrook; Emma Croy, Madalyn Amberson and Kinslee Gray from Glencoe and Ava Dodd and Kayla Traylor from Hokes Bluff.
“We talked about several goals before the season, and two of them were to win the right to host [the] area [tournament] and another was to win it and get to Huntsville,” said Mattison. “These girls have worked so hard and given everything they had to get to this point. We’ve just got to make it happened the rest of the way.”