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Briarwood recovered from a pair of pool play losses on Friday to make the Silver Bracket quarterfinals at the Juanita Boddie with pool wins over Northwest Rankin and Springville and a first-round win over Chelsea. (For the Reporter/Dawn Harrison)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

HOOVER – While the Briarwood Christian Lions faced a difficult start to the Juanita Boddie tournament on Friday, Aug. 23, they turned their form around with wins over Northwest Rankin out of Mississippi and Springville on Saturday, Aug. 24 to reach the Silver Bracket.

The Lions then beat the Chelsea Hornets to make it to the quarterfinals, where they would fall to Class 7A Fairhope.

Playing just a stone’s throw away from new head coach Chris Camper’s former stomping grounds of Hoover High School, the Lions went into the Finley Center looking to capitalize on their momentum after earning the first win of the Camper era on Thursday, Aug. 22 against Jemison.

However, that momentum was halted with a pair of rough results on the first day of the tournament.

The Lions opened up Pool 8 play against the St. Michael Catholic Cardinals and dropped the opening set 25-19.

Briarwood rallied off of that close loss with a big win in the second set, claiming a 25-14 victory to even up the match at one set win apiece.

The Cardinals recovered from that loss and claimed a 15-10 win in the third set to take the match.

The Lions then found more adversity in the form of the Class 7A Huntsville Panthers and found themselves quickly tested.

Briarwood competed in the first set but found itself on the losing end of a 25-19 score line and faced a 1-0 deficit going into the second set.

That second frame proved to be less competitive as the Lions dropped the set 25-14.

With two losses in their back pocket, Briarwood faced an uphill battle to reach one of the tournament’s top brackets, but Camper’s side shook off the losses and broke their skid early Saturday morning.

Faced with out-of-state competition in the Northwest Rankin Cougars, the Lions held off a tight challenge from the Mississippi-based school and claimed a 25-21 first set win to grab the upper hand in the match.

Briarwood capitalized on that first set win to take a double-digit win in the second set. It dominated the next set en route to a 25-12 victory that got them in the win column in pool play.

The Lions took that victory into their final match of pool play against the Springville Tigers, and they quickly found themselves in a very tight matchup.

In the first set, Briarwood and Springville couldn’t be separated after taking 24 points each and were also tied after one round of extra points. The Tigers took the second round of extra points to win the set 27-25 and force the Lions to respond.

Briarwood did exactly that with a commanding second set that paved the way for victory in the third and final set.

The Lions grabbed another double-digit second set win with a 25-15 victory to tie up the match.

From there, they held Springville under 10 points in the third set to win 15-9 and take their second straight match victory.

Those two victories on Saturday put Briarwood in third place in Pool 8, sealing a spot in the Silver Bracket.

The Lions then faced county opposition in the form of the Class 6A Chelsea Hornets, and they stood up to the challenge to extend their day.

While the Hornets entered the week as one of the most highly-regarded teams in Class 6A, Briarwood claimed a close first set victory with a 25-21 win.

Chelsea came back and challenged for an even closer second set, one that required extra points to see who would advance.

In the end, the Lions claimed both extra points to win 26-24 and book their ticket into the quarterfinals.

That would be where their run would end though as the Fairhope Pirates took a pair of 25-16 victories in the first two sets to sweep the match and reach the semifinals.

Briarwood now sits at 4-3 on the season ahead of another busy week of action.

The Lions will take on Leeds and Altamont in a tri-match on Tuesday, Aug. 27, with the Green Wave match set for 5 p.m. and the Knights match scheduled for 7 p.m. Briarwood will also have another county matchup on Thursday, Aug. 29 at 6 p.m. against the Montevallo Bulldogs. Both matches will take place at Briarwood Christian School.

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