Vinemont VB wins AHSAA 3A, Area 11 championship once again:

Mabri Smith returns to help Vinemont defeat Holly Pond:

GDW Analysis:
  HOLLY POND: Vinemont volleyball was back to normal circumstances Thursday when the Lady Eagles played in the AHSAA 3A, Area 11 tournament from Dwayne Adams Court/Felton Easterwood Gymnasium.
For a month, Vinemont was without junior setter Mabri Smith. She went down with concussion protocol September 18 when the Lady Eagles lost at Holly Pond in area play 3 games to 1.
The squad would go down in defeat without Smith eight times and headed into the playoffs reeling after they lost assignments to Meek and Cold Springs last week concluding the regular schedule.
Smith returned to her position in which this sent Reagan Robinson back to her normal spot of an outside hitter.
Both were standout performers for the Lady Eagles in winning the area championship for the 2nd straight year.
This time Vinemont did it at the home of Holly Pond. Holly Pond got the top seed by beating Vinemont 5 games out of 9 in the regular season.
It was a challenge for Vinemont to come through adversity and take home the championship trophy in the first season with Kaydi Woodard coaching the Lady Eagles.
Vinemont stunned Holly Pond in the final 25 to 21, 26 to 24, 14 to 25 and 26 to 24. The title bout was played in 1 hour, 43 minutes.
Before getting to the title segment, Vinemont had to fight off a determined JB Pennington squad.
The Lady Eagles controlled the first two sets by scores of 25 to 13 and 25 to 16.
Pennington staged a great rally by winning the next two games 25 to 20 and 25 to 19.
The tiebreaker was a tight one with Vinemont pulling it out at 15 to 13.
Holly Pond needed just 58 minutes in the other semifinal to sweep Locust Fork 25 to 18, 25 to 15 and 25 to 9.
Locust Fork was part of an exciting day in defeating Hanceville 3 games to 2, winning the tiebreaker 15 to 10.

 Outstanding performers:
GDW All Performance team
Vinemont: Reagan Robinson, Caroline Miller, Mabri Smith.
Holly Pond: Sadie Nail, Isabella Foust, Blakely Baggett.
Hanceville: Alex Twitty
JB Pennington: Makenna Yarbrough, Mackenzie Sansing
Locust Fork: Lara Lee Hawkins, Jacie Pettigrew.
All tournament selections:
Vinemont: Nicole Harris, Mabri Smith, Arleigh Thomason.
Holly Pond: Sadie Nail, Blakely Baggett, Isabella Foust
Hanceville: Lexi Link
GDW Most Outstanding player:
Reagan Robinson of Vinemont

Next week in AHSAA North Regional:
3A: Vinemont vs. Geraldine
        Holly Pond vs. Fyffe
The Regional will be at the Finley Center in Hoover.

 Photo from left, Mabri Smith, Reagan Robinson and Caroline Miller of Vinemont.
Robinson was named GDW Most Outstanding Player, Smith and Miller on the all performance team. GDW photo by Johnny Thornton.