Briarwood picks up win over Montgomery Academy in tri-match

Published 3:43 pm Wednesday, August 30, 2023

By Andrew Simonson

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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

ALABASTER – The Briarwood Christian Lions went 1-1 at a tri-match against the Montgomery Academy Eagles and Thompson Warriors at Warrior Arena on Tuesday, Aug. 29 thanks to a strong straight set win over the Eagles.

The first set against the Eagles was a back-and-forth affair, as Montgomery was only ahead 7-6 in the early phases of the match.

The teams kept trading blows, and the Lions went up 14-13 just past the midway point of the set. From there, the Eagles tied the game again, but Briarwood took two straight points to break up the tie and go up 16-14.

The Lions kept building a lead from there, and they made an emphatic statement with a kill to go up 20-16 and force a Montgomery timeout.

The teams kept trading points, but Briarwood was able to keep their lead. Briarwood went up 22-18 thanks to a great dig into a kill, and then the Lions grabbed the next point thanks to a block off a quick save.

Briarwood used the momentum from those two points to finish the set off with a 25-19 victory to go up 1-0 in the match.

In the second set, the Lions channeled their form they showed late in the first set to go up 3-0 early in the set. Even though the Eagles were able to pull a little closer and make Briarwood’s lead 7-3, the Lions pulled away and were up 13-4 when Montgomery called a timeout to try and stop the momentum.

Briarwood eventually took a 20-9 lead and looked poised to close out the match in dominant fashion, but Montgomery reeled off an epic comeback and went on a 14-4 run which included surviving four straight match points to force extras.

Briarwood showed tremendous resolve in the extra points and won the second set, 26-24, with back-to-back points to close out the match.

While Briarwood would fall in straight sets to Thompson by two scores of 25-10, the Lions still picked up a valuable win going into a crucial stretch of the season.

Next up for Briarwood, they will come home to face Chelsea on Aug. 31 at 6:30 p.m.

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