Red Bay volleyball suffers area tournament defeat to Lamar County, ending 2025 season

The Red Bay High School varsity volleyball team was swept 3-0 by Lamar County on Wednesday afternoon, ending the Lady Tigers’ 2025 season in the Class 2A Area 10 tournament semifinal.

The match, which was played on the campus of Area 10 regular season champion Sulligent High School, was a hard-fought one, but Red Bay came up short in each set.

To start the match, the Lady Tigers fell behind 14-3 early, which proved too far of a hole to dig out of even after a nice run late in the set. RBHS lost the opening set 25-18.

The second set saw Red Bay take an early 5-4 lead; the two sides then battled to an even 7-7 before Lamar County started to pull away. The Lady Bulldogs went on a 4-0 run to make it 11-7 and then doubled their advantage, going up 16-8.

However, the Lady Tigers weren’t calling it quits. Red Bay went on a run to tie the set back up 18-18 and then led 19-18 after a service error by LCHS. The remainder of the set was back-and-forth with a couple ties and lead changes. Unfortunately for Red Bay, Lamar County went on a small run, found the necessary two-point advantage, and won the second set 26-24 on a kill.

In the third and final set, Lamar County jumped out to a quick five-point advantage over Red Bay then slowly over the course of the set kept increasing its lead. The Lady Bulldogs went up 14-7, then 19-10 and 22-11 before eventually putting the match away with a 25-13 set victory.

“I thought we battled each and every game today. We just couldn’t get the big point when we needed it,” first-year Red Bay head coach Trae Wiygul told the Franklin Free Press. “I thought we played well, they were just better than us today.

“I’m super proud of our kids. The kids gave us all they had and that’s all that we asked of them,” he added.

“We graduate three seniors who have helped turn our program around, but overall we were a young team, and I truly believe that the future of Red Bay Volleyball is very bright.”