GRAHAM CARR / Staff Writer

NORTH SHELBY-Three area schools fared well in Briarwood Christian’s Serve-Off volleyball tournament, Saturday Aug. 25, at Briarwood Christian School.   Oak Mountain High School won the gold bracket by beating Briarwood 25-23, 25-14 in the final.

Thompson High School advanced to the final of the silver bracket falling to Lawrence County High School 25-9, 25-13.

Oak Mountain coach Lance Woods said his team has a lot of work to do, but he was glad his team was able to play a lot of people.  He said his team enjoyed playing in the first tournament of the year.

“We got to play a fired up Briarwood team, which was fun,” Woods said. “We played a great Hartselle team. The tournament, as a whole, was great competition.”

Oak Mountain went undefeated winning all three of its pool play games and then defeating Spain Park High School, Hartselle High School and Briarwood in the bracket.

Briarwood lost to Northridge High School in pool play, but did not lose again until the final, defeating Chelsea High School and Benjamin Russell High School in the gold bracket.

Briarwood coach Tien Le said he could not be more proud of his team, especially, in the final against Oak Mountain.

“For my young team, being their first tournament, they did great,” Le said.

Thompson fell to the silver bracket when both Faith Academy and Thompson finished with a record of 2-1 in pool play, but Faith Academy owned the tiebreaker because of the head-to-head matchup.

In the silver bracket, Thompson defeated Northridge and Daphne High School.

Thompson coach Kellyanne Turnbow said her young team gained valuable experience from the tournament.

“I think my younger players learned a lot and my older players stepped up,” Turnbow said. “We just got a little tired at the end.”

Chelsea did not advance as far as the other area teams but defeated Gardendale High School (25-20.25-23) and Parker High School (25-15,25-14).  The Hornets lost to Hartselle (24-26,15-25) in pool play and Briarwood(19-25,25-21,9-15) in the gold bracket.