VOLLEYBALL REGIONALS: Montgomery Academy stymied again by Saraland
Montgomery Academy’s Bennett Britt fires the kill shot in Thursday’s South Super Regional match against Saraland. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
After suffering a heartbreaking loss in the second round of the AHSAA 6A South Super Regional last year to Spanish Fort, Montgomery Academy players vowed to avenge that loss by advancing to the state tournament this year.
Once again, the Eagles were stymied in the second round, falling to Saraland in five sets on Thursday night, joining the 2024 squad as the only two MA teams since Competitive Balance Factor was initiated to not reach the state tournament.
The Eagles went to the 3A state tournament in 2018 and 2019, to the 4A tournament in 2020 and 2021 and the 5A tournament in 2022 and 2023, winning four state championships in the process. But 6A might prove to be a little too much for the Eagles, who assured themselves of a return to the classification in 2026-27 with Thursday’s first-round win over Brookwood, but failed to reach the annual objective after falling to the Spartans.
Montgomery Academy won the first set 25-17, lost the next two sets 21-25 and 16-25, won the fourth set 25-20 and lost the fifth set, 12-15.
“As hard of a loss as it was, it was a very fun match to see our girls respond to the adversity, to make adjustments when needed, to find ways to score and fight back,” Montgomery Academy coach Carly Falcione said. “That’s the fun part of coaching, getting to see how your team responds when it’s do or die.
“Hats off to Saraland. They played an incredible match, very clean, very physical, very scrappy. I hate that both these teams don’t get to go to state. I believe we’re two of the best in 6A.”
Saraland (34-7) will advance to the South Super Regional semifinals, joining Spanish Fort, Spain Park and Northridge as state tournament participants, while Montgomery Academy ended its first season under Falcione at 40-7.
“I’m proud of them,” the first-year coach said. “They fought incredibly hard and did more than what anyone was going to expect out of them, from the preseason rankings and not even being in the top 10 to seeing them perform and finish the way they did, it was honestly remarkable.”
The Eagles coasted past Brookwood in the opening round, winning 25-6, 25-8 and 25-11. Morgan Springer had 11 kills, seven blocks, four digs and two aces, Bennett Britt had 11 kills and three digs, Kaci Armistead had 10 digs, an assist and four aces, Caroline Wood had eight kills, E.G. Hines had two kills, a block, three digs and four aces and Rehmat Sidhu had three digs, 32 assists and two aces.
In the second match, the Eagles grabbed the upper hand against the Spartans, then weathered a stretch over the next two sets in which the Spartans were able to find open spots in the floor, particularly along the sideline.
“We talked a lot about defending the line well, specifically against their outsides,” Falcione said. “That was something we practiced and prepped for. We weren’t necessarily executing on the court and we had to have a conversation of like, hey, the back row either needs to figure it out or we need to block the ball. We needed to either fix our blocking scheme or our defense and we decided to let our defense make an adjustment. I felt like they were able to handle No. 14 a little better than we did the two sets before.”
The defensive adjustments worked as the Eagles put together an impressive and dominating display in the fourth set, but couldn’t sustain the success in the final set. Despite the setback, Falcione was proud of a team the exceeded expectations in what many considered a rebuilding year. Instead of rebuilding, the Eagles had a relatively seamless transition under a first-year coach who had never coached high school volleyball before.
“If I can describe it in one word, it was exciting,” Falcione said. “I was drinking through a fire hose, trying to understand high school volleyball and 14- to 18-year-olds, what it’s like to coach this age group and such a small group. It was a fun challenge, but they were not the challenging part, it was me. They surpassed the expectations of almost everyone outside of this program. After the seniors they lost last year, I cannot express how proud I am. They never batted an eye. They believed they were going to do a good job this year and they did.”
And with only one senior (Lucy Nelson) graduating this year, the 2026 season looks promising for Montgomery Academy.
“It’s hard to think about the future right now,” Falcione said, “but we’ve talked about it all season, how promising the future of this program is. I cannot coach the level of commitment they have to this program. Of course, talent wise, I’m excited to see what we have coming back and I’m excited that we return pretty much everybody.”