DAPHNE – The Battle by the Bay went the favorite's way. 6A's No. 5 ranked McGill-Toolen Catholic's Dirty Dozen won the annual Bayside Academy volleyball tourney for the second straight year.

Saturday, they did it with a 25-20, 25-22 championship win over the hosting Lady Admirals ranked No. 1 in 3A and coming off their seventh consecutive state title.

"I don't think it's a shocker that McGill won," said Bayside head coach Ann Schilling. "They are well coached and disciplined as usual. (Dirty Dozen head coach) Gretchen Boykin's kids always show up."

Boykin said Bayside challenged her players early and kept the pressure on.

"Bayside played well. I'm just glad my kids kept their poise and responded, especially after going three games with Faith (Academy) the match before. It was really close in that first game, then my left-side hitters stepped up and got going and then Carly Morgan started terminating a lot of balls that were key for us on the right side. I 'm glad they were able to bounce back when they got behind and then hold on in two tough matches back to back like that."

Schilling said her team showed marked improvement but still needs to work on some offensive areas. "Overall we did some good things today," she said. "All day, I think we played well. We just have got to get a couple of kids swinging better, more aggressively. They're young and a little timid on some of their swings. Hitting too much off-speed stuff and that's not what we really need right now, but they're getting there. We just have to keep working. The good news is I feel like we didn't have everybody playing up to full potential, but still we made it to the finals. Today had a little bit of a championship flair with the Montgomery Academy (quarterfinal) match and this one. It's fun and it's good for the kids to be involved in pumped up matches like that. So overall I think as a team we made some progress today."

Both finals teams faced stiff opposition along the way. Faith, ranked No. 3 in 5A put McGill-Toolen down 25 -22 in game one of the semis before falling 25-17 in game two. The Dirty Dozen then battled from an 0-5 deficit in game three to win it 15-12. The Rams were the only team to take a game from the Dirty Dozen in the tournament winning another one earlier in pool play.

The Lady Admirals also had to advance the hard way against No. 6 ranked Spanish Fort, winning the quarterfinal match 25-15, 23-25, 15-9 and topping MA's Eagles 25-17, 16-25 and 15-12 to win their pool in preliminary play.

Fairhope, Gulf Shores (No.7, 5A) and Robertsdale also took part in the tournament advancing out of pool play and into the elimination rounds out of the 13 team field.

Bayside senior Savannah Simmons led the Lady Admirals with 56 kills, 24 blocks, five aces, three assists and 50 digs; Gabby Deshotel had 32 kills and 28 blocks; Maggie Niemeyer had 30 kills, 10 blocks, four aces and three digs; GiGi Eyre led in digs with 76 and scored seven aces; Lizzy Williams picked up 38 digs and put down six aces; Sydney Chandler led in assists with 73 and added four aces; Emily Mace added 48 assists; Virginia Pittman had 17 kills, nine aces and three blocks; Rachel Cooper had four kills, 11 blocks and Jhalen Carrey had nine kills and seven blocks.

Sha Sha Buchanan led McGill-Toolen with 35 kills, 29 digs and eight blocks.