WEST MOBILE—A 5A showdown between Area 1 and 3 went the distance Tuesday at Faith Academy in West Mobile County as the visiting Spanish Fort Toros lost 15-8 in the fifth and deciding game. The Faith Rams won game one 25-23, but the Toros battled back to take the next two 25-22, 25-19 before FA tied it up with a 25-16 fourth.

Of the top-10, 5A teams in the state, four are in Mobile-Baldwin's Region. As of Tuesday, Faith is No. 3 behind area rival No. 1 St. Paul's while SFHS is holding at No. 6 ahead of Area 3 foe Gulf Shores at No. 7.

Spanish Fort head coach Barclay Kercher viewed the inter-area match as an important test for her team in it's post-season pursuits.

"I think it is kind of a tune up for us. It's good to play opponents like Faith," she said. "It prepares you for the end of the season and I'm sure we'll meet again at regionals. Hopefully, we can get better and then pull a win off when it counts. But despite not winning today, I'm proud of my players for coming in here and battling with them. I think we showed that we can compete with Faith. We lost the first game, then came back and set the tempo, our tempo the next two games. But then we lost our serve and their hitter (Rebekah Reeves ) caught fire. I mean we just couldn't stop her."

Faith and FHS split their regular season matches last year with the Rams coming out on top in the region tournament.

Faith head coach Jessica Rapier said her team has a lot of respect for the Toros and expected the match would be hard fought.

"Spanish Fort is a great fundamental team," she said. "They play great defense and we could not take anything away from them. They got to everything we put out there tonight. They're a great passing team as well and this was a chance to see where we are and that we need to hit the ball harder, serve the ball harder. Spanish Fort fought hard. We knew it would be a tough match. They got ahead, but Rebekah Reeves, Jessica Hall, Jamie Hall all stepped up their game in (game four). I'm proud of the ladies for keeping it together after getting behind like that. We had to make an adjustment (in game four). We started to go outside. Spanish Fort was really defending the middle well, so we had to go outside and we started hitting lines and scoring points and got back in it."

The Toros were led by Allison Landry with 22 assists, five kills, five digs and eight service winners ; Kristen Hall with 13 digs; Shelby Robinson with eight digs and Shelby Crain with six kills.

The Rams had 15 kills from Reeves, 16 kills from Jessica Hall, 13 from Jamie Hall and 38 assists from Chelsea Cummings.

The two teams will meet again Oct. 8 at Spanish Fort in season play, but could lock horns sooner in the Toros' Battle of Spanish Fort Tournament Sept. 19.

SFHS will square off with area rival Gulf Shores Tuesday at the Tank at GSHS at 4:30/5:30 p.m. Faith along with Bayside Academy is at McGill-Toolen Catholic this weekend in the Dirty Dozen tourney.