FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The No. 4 ranked 5A Spanish Fort Toros swept the No. 7 ranked 6A Murphy Panthers in a meeting of top-10 state volleyball teams at Fairhope Saturday in the Lady Pirates annual Back to School Bash invitational.

The 25-20, 25-18 championship victory was even sweeter for Spanish Fort (12-3) because Murphy (12-2) had just defeated No. 1 ranked 6A McGill-Toolen last week which should bump the Panthers up in the 6A poll.

“It was a huge win for Spanish Fort,” said Toros head coach Barclay Kercher. “The girls have been working hard and you don’t beat a team like Murphy without a lot of work.”

The Bash featured a 12-team field from which the host team, Gulf Shores, Murphy, Robertsdale, Satsuma and Spanish Fort emerged into the quarterfinal rounds. Murphy then got a bye while Robertsdale and SFHS met in the other semifinal which went to the Toros in three games 25-22, 17-25, 15-9.

Spanish Fort was led by Magen Brennan with 25 kills, 25 digs, 4 blocks; Alexis Treace with 34 kills, 28 digs, 4 blocks; Katie Godfrey with 26 kills, 23 digs, 7 blocks; Ari Kaminski with 14 kills, 6 blocks; Shannon Paaymans with 45 digs and MVP Amber Treace with 92 assists.

In the finals Murphy was led by Jobeth Hughes’ 13 kills and 11 blocks and Mollie Peavy’s 43 kills and 12 digs.

Murphy head coach Nancy Shoquist, who played high school volleyball at Fairhope and whose St. Paul’s and Murphy teams have won at the Bash before, said the Toros’ consistently strong serving paid off.

“Spanish Fort did a good job of serving the whole match and that goes a long way. It kept us from keeping our own momentum going. But like I said to (her players), we have to take steps, learn and grow and we’re not playing our best volleyball right now, today. But at this time of year you don’t expect to. We expect to keep moving and improving and I’m proud of my girls, they have worked really hard and played really hard and we've just gotten started. It’s always fun to come back to Fairhope and play — more fun to win it, of course — but it’s a really good early-season tournament. It’s always a good warm up for area matches coming up.”

Kercher said much credit for the Toros’ strong play to start this season is due to the addition of Tammy Richardson to the Toro coaching staff. Richardson retired from coaching last year after leading Oak Mountain to the 2010, 6A state title, her second championship as a head coach. She also collected a pair of red-map runner-up trophies during her 26 year career, most of which she spent at Pelham. Though ready to retire from running a program, Richardson found after moving to the Gulf Coast that going cold turkey was tougher than she expected and was ready to get back into the game to some extent when Kercher asked if she would be interested in helping at Spanish Fort.

“It’s really a collaborative effort,” said Richardson, who played the sport as a setter from Niceville, Fla., and Selma in high school to Montevallo in college. “I’m just helping to make some play-by-play decisions and also some strategic and maybe some technical decisions, too, during the game,” she added. “I just hope I make more good ones than bad ones. Kercher said the move was a good one.

“I’m happy to have the championship experience she can bring to our program and having her here already is a tremendous asset, obviously, as seen today. The girls really respect her a lot and we are more than happy to take advantage of her expertise. It was a good confidence boost, too, to get a tournament win under our belt with some big region games coming up next week.”