By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

MONTEVALLO – What a thrilling night it was for the Montevallo Bulldogs’ volleyball team on Tuesday, Oct. 23, as they played host to the Class 4A Area 8 volleyball tournament with spots in the super regional tournament on the line.

While the Bulldogs didn’t win the championship, they did end up clinching a spot in super regionals with a first-round sweep of Oak Grove in dominant fashion.

That led to one of the more thrilling championship matches across the state on Tuesday night, as the Bulldogs and Leeds Greenwave went five sets and to five extra points in the fifth set before Leeds was able to win the match by a final of 3-2 (23-25, 25-23, 25-27, 25-23, 20-18) to claim the area title.

Leading into that matchup with the Greenwave, Montevallo was able to pull off an easy 3-0 sweep of Oak Grove to gain confidence heading into the championship match.

The Bulldogs won the first two sets by a combined 50-15, taking the first set 25-11 and the second set by a whopping 25-4.

With Oak Grove down to its last set and coming off such a lopsided loss, it was going to be tough to pull off the comeback.

The Tigers, however, fought for their season and made it the closest set yet, but in the end, Montevallo was just too much and pulled off the 25-19 victory to advance.

In the championship match against Leeds, the Bulldogs two teams split an exciting first two sets decided by two points or less to even things up at 1-1 in the match.

That, however, was just the start of a five-set clash that saw neither team win a set by more than two points.

After the two teams found themselves tied at 25-25 in the third set, Montevallo went on to win the next two points in a row to take a 2-1 lead in the match and seemingly gain the advantage.

Neither team in the match actually had any advantage at all, however, as each set went to the wire.

On the brink of losing the area championship, Leeds bounced back with another two-point, 23-25, win in the fourth set to even things up and force a fifth and deciding set.

This is where the true action started.

Leading up to the final set, everything had set up for a thrilling finish that was most likely going to be decided by two points with neither team deserving to lose.

In what was a tightly contested set that lived up to the expectation, the two teams found themselves in a 15-15 tie, which is the allotted score for the champion in the fifth set.

Being forced to win by two points, the two teams continued staving off match points all the way up to a 19-18 lead for the Greenwave. That’s when Leeds finally converted one of the many match points in the set to pull of the exhilarating 20-18 set for the area title.

While Montevallo obviously wanted to win in front of the home crowd, it was an exciting match that showed the Bulldogs could compete for five sets heading to super regionals.

The Bulldogs will now travel to Montgomery’s Crampton Bowl MultiPlex on Friday to take on Greensboro in the first round of super regionals at 9 a.m.