Enterprise wins volleyball area tournament title

ENTERPRISE — Death and taxes are said to be the only two certain things in life.

People might as well add Enterprise winning area volleyball tournaments to that list.

The Lady Wildcats defeated the Dothan Tigers 20-25, 25-19, 25-13, 25-9 for the Class 6A, Area 5 tournament crown Tuesday, marking the Lady Wildcats’ 17th straight area tournament championship and 31 of 32.

The 17th in the recent series did not come easily, as Dothan rolled to an 8-1 lead in the first game.

Enterprise (17-10) managed to tie the game at 19, but Dothan went on a 6-1 run to grab a 25-20 victory.

Kaitlin Sizemore had an ace to close the set.

“I think we just got shook from the beginning,” said Rita Tanner, Lady Wildcats head coach.

Tanner added the fact her team had not played in a week and not practiced as often due to homecoming activities played a role in the slow start.

Enterprise would rebound and have nothing of Dothan trying to break its streak.

Enterprise jumped out to a 10-1 lead in the second game.

Dothan chipped away at the lead throughout, but Enterprise won it 25-19.

The Tigers tried to seize momentum again in the third game as they grabbed an early 4-3 lead.

The Wildcats, though, roared back with a 16-5 run en route to the 25-13 win.

Ashlee Smith had three blocks to fuel the run.

Dothan only had one lead in the fourth game, 1-0.

After that, Enterprise snapped off scoring runs of 8-1 and 10-0 to take the final game 25-9.

“We lost a little bit of mental focus, and we couldn’t recover,” Dothan head coach Patricia Ball said.

Leading Enterprise statistically was Ashli Thomas, who had four kills, eight blocks and two aces.

Julia Stroud fueled the offense with eight aces, while Cassie Wilcox had 21 assists.

Smith had six kills in addition to her three blocks.

Against Enterprise Carmela Kirkland had five blocks and two kills. Katie Andrews chipped in with four kills and two blocks.

Sizemore had three aces, and Lawanar Talley had three kills and two blocks.

Dothan advanced to the title match with a 25-16, 25-12, 18-25, 25-13 win over Northview.

In the match, Davy Vollmuth had four aces and a kill. Tiffany Martin added three aces, while Kirkland chipped in five kills.

Both Enterprise and Dothan advance to regionals Saturday.

Ball said her team will have to practice to correct some mistakes from Tuesday’s matches.

“We missed a lot of serves, and that’s unacceptable. We’ve got to put the ball in play,” she said.

Tanner said her squad will have to continue the good play it has shown down the stretch to have a successful regional.