Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

NORTH SHELBY – The Briarwood Christian Lions continued establishing themselves as a state championship favorite with another winning performance in a tournament, this time on its home court.

Briarwood overcame a field of 15 other teams to finish the Barry Walker Invitational with a 6-0 record, claiming the tournament title on Saturday, Sept. 27 at Briarwood Christian School while dropping just one set in the process.

The wins move Briarwood to 26-3 on the season heading into the final two weeks of the regular season. The Lions came into the match fresh off a five-set loss at Mountain Brook and looked to get back to winning ways.

Briarwood started out pool play against the Headland Rams and quickly established itself as the favorite in the matchup.

The Lions took the lead in the first match with a 25-15 victory in the first set, which set the tone for the rest of the matchup. From there, Briarwood won the second set as well, this time on 25-18 fashion, to finish off the 2-0 sweep.

Afterwards, the Lions took on a fellow Class 5A opponent in the Jacksonville Golden Eagles.

Briarwood got the early edge in the matchup thanks to a strong start that led to a 25-19 win in the first set. That led to an even more emphatic victory in the second set as Briarwood went up by double digits and went on to win the set 25-15 to sweep the match.

The Lions then finished off pool play with a game against the Lawrence County Red Devils as they sought to end pool play with a 3-0 record.

Briarwood made a solid first step toward that goal as it got the better of Lawrence County in the tightest set of the tournament thus far. However, the Lions still earned the win in 25-21 fashion to set themselves up for success in the second set.

Briarwood rolled to an even greater lead in the second set and eventually doubled up the Red Devils’ point total. The Lions then finished their perfect pool play record with a 25-12 win in the second set against Lawrence County.

That put Briarwood in the Gold Bracket of the tournament, and it met a familiar foe in the quarterfinals in the form of area opponent Sylacauga.

After the Lions swept the Aggies earlier in their area matchup, Briarwood once again got the better of Sylacauga. The hosts got off on the right foot and carried their lead all the way through the final stretch to earn the 25-19 win in the first set.

After that, the Lions continued to be in control of the match and carried the momentum through to a sweep. Briarwood’s 25-17 win in the second set assured the hosts of a spot in the semifinals.

There, the Lions met the Arab Knights and proceeded to earn their most emphatic win of the entire tournament.

Briarwood grabbed hold of the lead early and cruised from there to a 25-9 first-set win. The Lions commanded the match from start to finish and didn’t allow Arab a moment to get any momentum in the match. As a result, Briarwood won the second set by a score of 25-5.

The victory booked a spot in the finals for the Lions as they took on the UMS-Wright Bulldogs for the championship.

It proved to be the closest matchup of the tournament for Briarwood as it found itself in a competitive battle with UMS-Wright early on. However, the Lions battled through to take the first set by a score of 25-20 to put themselves a set win away from taking the title.

That’s when the Bulldogs fought back and battled until the end of the second set. UMS-Wright eked out a 25-23 win to extend the match to a tiebreaking third set.

From there, Briarwood bounced back and took a firm hold on the momentum in the third set. The Lions grabbed the lead and pushed through for a 15-9 win, capping off the match in 2-1 fashion to seal the tournament title.

Across the eight matches in the week, including Tuesday’s area match with Central-Clay County and Thursday’s loss to Mountain Brook, Noelle Suellentrop secured 120 assists to pass the 500-assist mark for the season while Julie Roberts had 64 kills, 19 aces, 43 digs and five blocks.

Clara Crawford earned 13 blocks and 12 aces, Helen Morrison finished with 42 kills and 10 aces and Lainey Woods racked up 35 digs and nine aces.

Briarwood will return to action at home on Tuesday, Sept. 30 at 6 p.m. as the Lions will face the Homewood Patriots.