DAPHNE, Ala. — The Pirates and Trojans fought down to the wire in a 6A Area 3 volleyball battle Tuesday at Trojan Gym in Daphne. Fairhope prevailed with a 15-8 score in the fifth and deciding game. The match was a see-saw battle through the first four games with Daphne winning the first 25-17 and third 25-19. The Lady Pirates kept it even with 25-21 wins in both games two and four.

Fairhope remained undefeated in Area 3 and improved to 4-0 while moving one step closer to clinching the top seed and hosting berth for the area tournament. Daphne fell to 2-3 with the loss. Poised to tie Fairhope if they win the rest of their area matches is Robertsdale at 2-1 at this writing with three area matches left.

In the deciding game Tuesday, both sides traded 1-point leads until Fairhope went up by two 8-6, Daphne came back to tie at 8-8, but Fairhope's Rachel Cooper then went on the longest serving run of the night winning seven straight points for the final score.

Fairhope coach Melissa Plash was happy with the win and how it was accomplished

"They did a good job of responding to Daphne's challenges tonight," she said. "We knew they would fight hard. They wanted it, but we wanted it too. The girls worked hard. One of their goals is to go undefeated in the area and tonight they had to fight for it, but I'm proud of how they battled and hung in there. I think some keys came down to our passing being on and our hitters hitting smart up front and our serving was good, too. I think we had one missed serve all five games. Rachel (Cooper) stepped up as a server and served well at the line tonight and everyone stepped it up when they needed to."

Daphne coach Edoli Herrion was disappointed, especially for her seniors who were recognized before the varsity match.

"I hate that we didn't win for the seniors on senior night, but I'm proud of how they fought all the way and never gave up. We had the effort. We're not where we want to be, but we have been working hard to get better. Now we have to win out and hope we get the second seed for the tournament."

Daphne's leaders were Sierra Patterson with 16 kills, 11 blocks, 15 digs and 5 aces; Krista Owens with 15 kills, 25 digs; Katherine Barr with 12 kills, 14 digs and 4 aces, Barkley Langhan had 2 kills, Jordan Filotei had 31 digs and Kayla Owens had 42 assists with 19 digs.

Fairhope was led by Kali Martin with 22 kills, 11 digs; Melissa Rew with 17 blocks, 6 kills; Cooper with 17 blocks, 16 kills; Briege Donahue with 11 blocks, 4 kills; Imani Kirksey with 8 kills, Brittany Domino with 7 digs, Sabrina Crenshaw with 22 digs and Courtney Ellis who had 48 assists with 13 digs and 6 blocks.