FOLEY, Alabama — Foley High School's Lady Lions secured at least a third-place finish in the 6A Area 3 regular-season volleyball standings with a senior-night home win over the Tigers of Baldwin County High Tuesday.

Foley held off several serious rallies by the Tigers to close the big area win in three-straight games 27-25, 25-16 and 25-23.

Foley coach Wing Brett, in his first year with the Lady Lions, was happy for his nine seniors who have had a different coach each of their high-school-grade seasons.

"I think the home court helped us tonight," he said. "But I think the girls wanted it, too. We had more and longer scoring runs in games one and two and even though they kept running back, we found a way to flip it back and keep them chasing us. But I think winning on senior night

is maybe the really big thing. They're excited because they feel like they can compete and they have been on teams here that simply didn't. But the down side now is we're hurting. We need some down time before the area tournament to try and heal."

Coach Mike Tucker of BCHS, who is in his first year leading the Lady Tigers, was disappointed coming off a three-game sweep of Daphne.

"We just didn't play very well. And they played better. Simple as that," he said. "They beat us in four (games), at our place earlier this season, and I thought we were ready to show them how much we had improved since then. But I guess we still need to work on consistency and finishing stronger. We played well in spots, but you can't do that against a good team and win. We had the first game won after chasing them the whole game, but then we let them back in and they won it 27-25. We win there, it changes everything. Instead, they dominate the

next game and we get behind 12-5 in the third game. And then we started to play. Came back strong and even took the lead. So it's somewhat encouraging to see them not give up at 0-2 and willing to fight back like that in the third game. But we need to find away to spark that energy sooner. I know it's there. We or I or all of us have got to find a better way of unleashing it sooner rather than later."

Foley was led by Natasha Johnson who scored 12 kills and 11 digs, Brittney Davis who added 10 kills, Kelsey Cassebaum with eight kills and a kill-block, Annelise Salzmann with five kills and three aces, Ashley Brokenshaw with 14 assists and two aces, Hilton Foster who

added nine assists and Amanda Brett's 13 digs at B.

The Lady Tigers were led by Katelin Crenshaw's nine kills, Kea McDougal's seven kills, Mallorie Murphy's five kills and eight digs, Jennifer Modispacher's four kills, Raven Weaver's 10 digs and two aces and Brittani Peacock's seven digs.

Robertsdale High (8-0 in area play and ranked No. 10 in the state) will host the 6A Area 3 tournament Oct 18-19 at Golden Bear Gym.