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After suffering heartbreak in the area semifinals last year, Spain Park capped a perfect 8-0 area record with wins over Helena and Chelsea to give the senior class an area title to call its own. (For the Reporter/Jeremy Raines)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

HOOVER – After losing in the area semifinals to the Chelsea Hornets in 2024, the Spain Park Jaguars entered the 2025 Class 6A, Area 8 tournament with unfinished business.

However, they entered in a much different spot from a year before–as undefeated area champions, and they backed that status up.

A dropped third set in the semifinals against the Helena Huskies was the lone blemish on a perfect Wednesday, Oct. 15 at Jag Arena as Spain Park defeated Helena 3-1 before a 3-0 sweep of Chelsea in the area championship.

For Spain Park coach Justin Kisor, it was a “redemption run,” one fueled by the heartbreak of last year but one that didn’t let said setbacks hinder them either.

“To do what happened last year, nobody’s used to that,” Kisor said. “Spain Park’s not used to that. I’m not used to that, going home early, and to do kind of what we’ve done so far this year, it’s been a lot of fun, and they’re fun to coach, and they come in every day ready to go.”

Spain Park came into the semifinal against the Huskies ready to go as it raced ahead to a 10-1 lead in the opening frame. Helena’s defense held on throughout the set, but the Jags kept pulling away ahead of a 25-8 first-set win.

While the Huskies struck first in the second set and tied it at 3-3, Spain Park raced ahead to a 12-3 lead thanks to a run capped off by three-straight aces for Camdyn Kyes. Both teams then traded runs that left the Jags up 15-10.

Then, Spain Park struck with four-straight points, and Mary Payton Dees’ ace forced a timeout before the Jags went up 20-11.

Helena fought hard out of the timeout to string together points, even landing an ace from Monroe Bouler. The Huskies took advantage of a set-point error to extend the set, but a miscue of their own gave Spain Park the 25-17 win and the 2-0 lead.

The final stretch did prove to be the start of a momentum shift, one that carried through the third set.

Helena quickly got out to a 5-1 lead and led the set wire-to-wire. The Jags tied the set up twice at 10-10 and then at 14-14 off a Madden Scott ace, but each time, Helena showed resiliency and went back in front. The Huskies went on a 9-3 run after the second tie to lead 23-17.

That’s when back-to-back kills by Ja’Niyah Mosley and Bea Wiggins helped Spain Park regain some momentum. A service error ended the threat and gave Helena the 25-20 third-set win.

The two teams battled it out in the first points of the fourth set. Helena used a 4-0 run to take a 6-3 lead and forced an early timeout from Kisor, an uncharacteristic move from the second-year Jags coach but one he later explained was necessary after the third-set woes persisted into the fourth.

“I thought that we put some pressure on ourselves to kind of close that out,” Kisor said after crediting Helena for its fight in the matchup. “I don’t usually call timeouts that early, but I felt like our team needed, needed to calm down a little bit and get their head back in. I thought if we could ever get that lead in the third set up, which we never could, we tied it a bunch, we never could get that lead and push ahead, I think that would have kind of calmed us down.”

Spain Park flipped the momentum shortly after, tying the set at 7-7 off a Wiggins kill and then using a Chloe Shumate kill to take the lead. Scott’s ace for the 9-7 lead triggered a Helena timeout, and the Jags never trailed again.

The Huskies kept it close at 12-11 before Spain Park went on an 11-3 run to pull away for good. The rotating cast of front row players in Wiggins, Mosley, Shumate and Peyton Harrington were all key in helping pull away to a 24-13 lead.

Riley Woods briefly kept the Huskies’ season alive, but an error by Helena sealed the 25-14 fourth-set result for Spain Park and a spot in super regionals.

Wiggins finished with 20 kills and 12 digs while Mosley had 13 kills off a +.522 hitting percentage and three total blocks. Cailyn Kyes earned 44 assists as a result to go with her 14 digs and two aces.

Camdyn Kyes led the defense with 24 digs and three assists. Harrington had nine digs, four kills, two aces and three blocks, and Shumate finished with eight kills and a block.

The Jags then waited through a five-set Chelsea-Pelham match to face the Hornets for the area crown.

With Spain Park up 4-3 on the Hornets, Shumate flipped the serve ahead of back-to-back Wiggins kills, the second time she had done that in less than 10 points. Scott then used an ace to trigger a Chelsea timeout with the Jags’ lead at 8-3.

Spain Park kept pulling away and led 13-7 off a Mosley kill that set up a Harrington ace. The Hornets went back-and-forth for the next few points before a 3-0 run led to a 20-11 lead and another Chelsea stoppage.

While the Hornets kept fighting, Mosley capped the set off in emphatic fashion with a kill and a block in the final two points to seal the 25-15 first-set win.

Chelsea went toe-to-toe with Spain Park to start the second set and led 6-5 ahead of a service error. The Jags used that to start a 4-0 run capped by a Mary Payton Dees ace, putting the hosts up 9-6.

That was only the start of positive things to come, and Camdyn Kyes supercharged her team with a diving dig that went over the net for the point and even forced a Hornets timeout.

Harrington got an ace shortly after for the 15-7 lead, but Chelsea tried to work its way back in and cut it to 17-12 off a Rudolph kill.

Wiggins denied the Hornets momentum and got two of the next three points herself for the 20-12 lead and another Chelsea timeout. That effectively was the deciding blow as the teams traded points down the stretch before a Moseley kill off a side-out gave the Jags a 25-16 win.

Spain Park burst out of the gate in the fifth set with a 5-2 lead before Chelsea got back within one at 7-6. From there though, Harrington retook the serve with a kill and Spain Park pulled away for a 12-6 lead.

The Jags kept their foot on the gas down the stretch, extracting one last timeout with a big dig for the 17-9 lead and taking the lead to 19-9 right out of the break. Spain Park closed the match on an 8-2 run and capped it with a dump from Wiggins for the 25-11 third-set win, 3-0 sweep and area championship.

After the match, Kisor credited his defense for rising to the challenge of a dangerous Chelsea front row to secure the win. However, he also took time to spotlight his middle blockers Shumate and Mosley for stepping up and raising the level of the offense while also providing key blocks against Rudolph.

“The last two or three weeks, our middles have been carrying us a lot,” Kisor said. “Not that our outsides haven’t played well, but it’s just like, that’s what we’ve been waiting on them to do that. And, we kind of got it all going on with Bea and Peyton on the outside, and then Chloe has been huge, she’s been great, and then obviously Ja’Niyah’s been great all year, so I think that was a key too. We had our hitters playing smart and hitting the ball in good spots.”

While Spain Park has its eyes set on greater titles than the area crown, it’s the senior class of Cailyn Kyes, Mosley and Wiggins’ first championship as core members of the team, with the other coming in 2023 before their fellow senior Dees transferred in.

Giving the seniors a title to call their own means a lot to Kisor after seeing them lead the team since his arrival in 2024.

“They earned that. They deserve that,” Kisor said. “Obviously with MP coming in this year, and then last year, I think that they were really the three that really bought in from the get go. And then I felt like it just spread during the summer, and then I think that they seem like they trust me a lot of time, but I trust them, I let them be them, and I let them lead with how they’re supposed to lead. And so I think that just goes hand in hand with how they are. But to me, it means the world.”

The Jags will take on the Gulf Shores Dolphins, a Final Four team from a year ago, in the first round of the South Super Regionals on Thursday, Oct. 23 at the Cramton Bowl Multiplex in Montgomery.

The estimated start time is 1:30 p.m., and a win would set up a second-round game at 5:15 p.m. for a spot at the state tournament.

In addition, the All-Tournament Team was announced following the championship match.

-Spain Park: Cailyn Kyes, Camdyn Kyes, Ja’Niyah Mosley, Bea Wiggins

-Chelsea: Braylee Allen, Sophia Bagley, Alexis Rudolph

-Pelham: Bristol Hannah, Aubrie Smith

-Helena: Avery Cantley, Mady Mamucud

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