By Coe Robbins | Special to the Advertiser

Junior Tayuna Watson had an emphatic kill to win the match Thursday as Maplesville cruised in the fourth set to earn its fourth victory of the year, this time over cross-county rival Thorsby, 3-1 (25-16, 25-19, 18-25, 25-14).

The visiting Rebels managed to get within three points of the lead, at 15-12, in the fourth set, but that was as close as they would get as the Red Devils ended on a 10-2 run to finish the match.

Maplesville coach Kerri Payne said her girls fought until the end and was proud of their performance.

“They played like a team,” Payne said. “We practiced really hard yesterday, and they came out as a totally different team today.”

The first set was dominated by MHS. After Thorsby made it 2-all, Maplesville never relinquished the lead after tough defensive plays by the Red Devils and some badly-timed unforced errors by Thorsby.

In the second set, the flow was a little more back-and-forth, with 10 ties and four lead changes. Thorsby was up 17-14 before an 11-2 run to give Maplesville the crucial second set.

“We had breakdowns in communication and coverage,” Thorsby head coach Lasheka Price said. “We certainly could have played better defense and our serves could have been better, but they weren’t.”

The one shining spot for Thorsby was the third set as the Rebels raced out to a 5-0 lead behind the serve of Katlyn Watley.

With Thorsby winning 12-11, senior Katelyn Brimley served for five straight points to extend the lead to 17-11 and gave the Rebels their only set win.

Kendrauna Griffen paced MHS with four kills and two aces, while both Shelby Weldon and Alexus Nix had two kills each.