As the regular season for varsity volleyball comes to a close, many eyes are on the small but disciplined and hungry Springville Lady Tigers, who boast a 38-7 record and are ranked #3 in Class 5A, according to a poll of sportswriters conducted by AL.com

“It’s been pretty good, I mean I can’t complain,” Springville head volleyball coach Warren House said about the latest rankings. “We’ve had seasons similar to this one, it just depends on how the girls finish the season to determine whether it is truly special or not.”

Explaining the #3 ranking, House said it was a string of matches in the recent past that may have caught the attention of the state’s media “We had a stretch this season about two weeks ago when we beat some really good teams. We beat ranked teams in 4A – 6A during that stretch, along with a couple 6A teams that are in the mix of getting ranked as well.”

The path through the playoffs begins with a match against Moody. “(Moody) normally get up for us. If we can take care of that challenge we then have Mortimer Jordan, who is hosting the first round and beat us there this season.”

After Moody comes Mortimer Jordan, who will be hosting this year’s first round of playoff action. “If we get to the final but lose to Mortimer Jordan again it would be a setback, because if that happens we have to go to Guntersville, who came here two weeks ago and beat us in a tight match,” House said. “After Guntersville, we would then have to play the #1 team in the state in 5A (Lawrence County).

“Beating Mortimer Jordan would put them in a Super-Regional bracket that would still be a challenge, but not the gauntlet of Guntersville and Lawrence County.”

House confesses that his team is a bit shorter than some of the high-ranked teams he has had to face this year, but the Lady Tigers he coaches have improved on the aspects of the game that can counter that challenge.

“Our best strength is our passing and receiving. It’s been better this year than it has been in the past several years. We are able to get good passes and good sets this year, which sets up all of our offensive plays. We are very strong with service-saving. We are keeping the ball in play, we solidly set the ball, and the passing we are able to do really sets us up for winning points.” House stressed how consistent his team has been this year, seeing them slip up only once in a match against #2 Guntersville.

Springville’s volleyball coach spoke about how lucky he is to have an abundance of senior leadership on the team.

“We’ve got seven seniors and we’ve got our captains Emily Ward (senior setter) and Jaylyn Felder who is our outside hitter. Lots of the seniors lead without having to be named a captain. They are out there trying to help the younger ones talking about their hitting form or their movement into positon and where they need to be.”

One of those seniors is McKayla Hunt, who spoke about the team dynamics that helped her team secure such a high ranking in 5A volleyball.

“I know with our work ethic and the things we’ve put out this year that we’ll go far — because we really want it this year, and we are determined.”

“We have to adapt because of our (lack of) height so we have to make up for it with our defense and we have worked super-hard to improve – (defense) was not one of our strengths, but the more we have worked on it, the more we have gotten better, so now I think that plays into our strengths.”

As for the friendships made on the court, Hunt said there was a feeling of family between her, her teammates, and her coaches. “We are super tight, the best of friends. We are as close to being a family without actually being a family.”

“Coach House is one of the greatest men I have ever met. As a coach he is so dedicated and very supportive of us especially during the season – on and off the court.”