BAY MINETTE, Alabama—The Lady Tigers of Baldwin County High pulled off a high-stakes sweep over area foe Daphne Thursday night 30-28, 28-26, 25-22 at BCHS. All three games were close with the match being decided by seven of 160 total points scored.

With Robertsdale (7-0) in the clear lead to clinch the regular-season title and host the 6A Area 3 tournament, the battle for second may depend on what happens in Foley Tuesday and possibly what happens in Daphne Thursday. Both BCHS (2-5) and DHS (3-4) still have remaining matches against the Lions (3-3).

In a tie-break situation, BCHS now holds the head-to-head advantage over the Lady Trojans at 2-0 for the runner up spot but must beat Foley to take advantage. However a sweep by Foley could elevate them to 5-3 and the No. 2 spot in the final tournament seeding.

Baldwin County coach Mike Tucker feels good about he way his team is playing at this point in the season.

"It started off looking like it could go five games," he said. "We were up most of the time and holding them off, but they would just keep coming back and then we got into that point beyond 25 points where the next point would decide it. And fortunalety we hung in there and I'm proud of the way we stayed tough through those points. Not

sure this team could have done that at the start of the year. But they have worked so hard and grown so much as individuals and as a team. I only have three seniors and only one of them, Kea McDougal, has real serious time in with varsity experience. But Daphne played hard and

pushed it and didn't quit. Whenever you get games like 30-28, 28-26 going on, a difference of seven points in the match, you know your in for a fight. So when we put it away in the third game—and they came from a few points down with us at game point (24) before we stopped them at 23."

Tucker credited McDougal's steady leadership on and off the floor as well as outside hitter Katelin Crenshaw, middle blocker Ariel Adams, setter Morgan Watkins and libero Raven Weaver for providing a "balanced attack," over the course of the entire match.

"Raven is playing well at libero passing at 77-percent," he said. "Our pass-receive in general has improved over all. Morgan has more options and she is doing a great job. And as a result, all my hitters are getting consistently good balls to hit. Ariel is doing a great job in

the middle and Crenny and Kea are scoring evenly from the sides. And so if we just limit mistakes and continue to score with a balanced attack, we can keep getting better and better. In this area you know Robertsdale's the clear winner. The real battle is for two and three."

BCHS led 21-16 in the third game when McDougal served back-to-back aces to make it an eight-point, match-point lead 24-16. But DHS took the next point and ran their score behind the serving of Jordan Filotei including an ace and a block by Taylor Wright to make it 24-22 before the Tigers claimed the final point for the match.

Crenshaw finished with 12 kills, eight digs and three aces; McDougal added 11 kills, three aces and three blocks; Adams had nine kills and two blocks. Watkins—who is the daughter of former BCHS and Daphne coach Sarah Watkins—had 35 assists, two kills and Weaver had 14 digs and two aces for the 9-21, 2-5 Tigers.

For Daphne (9-24, 3-4) Katherine Barr led with 10 kills, 10 digs and two service winners; Suzanne Evans added 7 kills; Wright added five kills, three blocks and a service winner; Anna Ramsey had 13 digs and an ace; Filotei had 12 digs, two service winners and an ace from the line; Audrey Walding had 10 assists and 12 digs and Taylor Barnette had 10 assists, two kills and a service winner.