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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

NORTH SHELBY – The Briarwood Christian Lions got off on the right foot in area play with a sweep of the Central-Clay County Volunteers on Monday, Sept. 9 at Briarwood Christian School.

The 3-0 win came after a 2-3 weekend at the Mayor’s Cup in Montgomery and has the Lions at 1-0 in area play.

Over the weekend, Briarwood earned a pair of 2-0 sweeps over Prattville and Providence Christian to start the Mayor’s Cup.

However, three straight losses in three sets to St. Paul’s, Trinity Presbyterian and John Carroll Catholic sent the Lions home in preparation of their area opener.

Briarwood responded in a big way after those losses with a dominant first-set performance that it rode all the way to victory.

The Lions got out to a big lead to start the match and didn’t let up as they went on to win the first set by double digits.

In the end, Briarwood took the set 25-11 to set the tone for the rest of the match.

With the momentum now in their favor on their home court, the Lions kept rolling in the second set to put them closer to the win.

Briarwood used that commanding lead to win the second set 25-13 and put it on the cusp of securing the sweep.

That second set proved to be the closest of the three as the Lions rolled to their biggest set win of the night.

Briarwood pulled away and never looked back, taking the third set 25-6 to seal the 3-0 match victory.

Sophomore Stella Meeks finished the match with five aces, 12 assists and five digs. Julia Thompson earned five kills and three digs over the course of the three-set victory, and Ava Doss had eight digs and three kills on the evening.

The Lions will look to make it 2-0 in area play when they make the trip to Sylacauga to face the Aggies on Thursday, Sept. 12 at 6 p.m.