By Brandon Sumrall | Special to the Advertiser

Isabella’s middle school and junior varsity volleyball teams have both won county championships this week, and the school’s varsity team will try to make it a clean sweep on Saturday.

The IHS JV team knocked off Thorsby and Jemison on Thursday night in a county tournament that, like the others, is being hosted by Thorsby.

With a first-round bye, the Mustangs awaited the winners of the first two matches.

Thorsby defeated Chilton County High School in the first match-up of the tournament, 2-1.

In the second match-up of the day, Jemison topped Maplesville, 2-0.

The Panthers punched their tickets to the championship game with the win, and they got a short rest as Isabella defeated Thorsby, 2-0, to advance.

Jemison wasted little time jumping out to an early lead in the championship match, and with the set score at 10-6 in favor of Jemison, Hannah Northcutt led the Panthers on a three-point run to take a 13-6 lead.

Isabella kept things close, but leading 15-13, the Panthers went on a four-point run behind the serving of Aryn Caputo to expand the lead to 19-13. JHS went on to a first set win, 25-20.

The second set was closely contested until the Mustangs took over the serve trailing 8-7.

Thanks to three aces from Heather Wallace, IHS went on a six-point run to take a 14-8 lead.

The Mustangs never relinquished their lead, and with a 19-11 advantage, Kasey Grimes led a five-point Isabella run as the Mustangs picked up the win, 25-11.

Down to the deciding third set, the Mustangs showed early that they still had the momentum as they started the set on a 5-0 run behind the serving of Heaven Fowler.

Jemison would not go quietly, chipping away at the Isabella lead and closing to within three points of the Mustangs, 12-9.

Isabella would not be denied, however, as the Mustangs went on to a 15-11 set win to take the match and the county championship.

Tournament Most Valuable Player Grimes led the Mustangs with 12 assists, nine aces and five kills.

Kinley Tuttle had 14 kills, five blocks and one ace while Miranda Smitherman added five aces for Isabella.

The All-Tournament Team included Grimes, Tuttle, Smitherman and Aleah Kiefer from Isabella; Olivia Mullins and Northcutt of Jemison; and Chyanne Martin of Thorsby.

Mustangs also win middle school tournament

Isabella won the middle school county tournament on Oct. 4, taking victories over Thorsby (25-9, 25-14), Clanton (25-14, 25-14) and Jemison (25-19, 14-25, 15-11) in the round-robin format event.

Jemison finished second in the tournament, and Thorsby finished third because of a win over Clanton.

Isabella’s Katelyn Talley was named the tournament MVP for a performance that included a combined three kills, 10 assists and 18 aces.

Other all-tournament team selections for Isabella included Emily Booth (six kills, two assists and 17 aces), Grace Calfee (six kills and two aces) and Noelle Fjeldstad (six kills, five aces and six digs).

Varsity tournament to be played Saturday

The varsity Chilton County Volleyball Tournament will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday with host Thorsby taking on Chilton County High School.

Jemison and Maplesville will play at 10 a.m., and at 11 a.m., Isabella will face the winner of the first match.

The championship match, scheduled for noon, will pit the winner of the second match against the winner of the third match.

All matches in the single-elimination tournament will be best-of-three sets.