Lady Bucs' season ends in Elite Eight

The Hoover Lady Buccaneers’ volleyball season ended with a 3-2 loss to McGill-Toolen in the Alabama High School Volleyball Tournament on Wednesday at the Birmingham CrossPlex.

The Lady Bucs, runner-ups last season to Mountain Brook, ended this season among the Elite Eight, but couldn’t get past the opener against the Dirty Dozen from Mobile, which took the match 25-16, 14-25, 25-17, 23-25, 15-7.

The Lady Bucs put together two strong games, especially the fourth when facing elimination. But overall, the Lady Bucs couldn’t sustain enough momentum.

“It’s a tough loss,” said coach Chris Camper. “It was such a well-played match. It was hard for either team to get momentum. They just executed better.

“I told our coaches that the first four points of the fifth would decide it.”

Indeed, McGill built a 3-1 lead that stretched to 5-1 and then to 11-5 as the Lady Bucs ran out of gas.

"We didn’t serve as aggressively in the fifth as we should have,” Camper said.

“Nora Webster played out of her mind, Ali Lowe played out of her mind. We had some unforced errors, and we couldn’t stop them at the net. Their slide attack was very tough. We made the right adjustments but they could just hit it over us.”

McGill-Toolen coach Kate Wood praised Hoover. “Hoover’s an outstanding team and they did things that really stressed us. I thought they blocked really well. It wasn’t a picture-perfect match, but we showed a lot of grit in winning.”  

Lowe had 16 kills, 10 digs, 4.5 blocks and three aces. Webster, a junior, had 13 kills and two digs. Caroline Sanford added 12 kills, 2.5 blocks and a dig. Junior libero Olivia Portera had 24 digs, an assist and an ace. Junior Jamie Gregg had 20 digs and 45 assists, a kill and a block.

For McGill, 6-foot-2 senior middle blocker Elizabeth Burnett had 21 kills, five aces, two digs and a block.

The Lady Bucs finished 34-7. McGill (48-7) advanced to Wednesday’s later round.