By TIM GAYLE

Montgomery Academy coach Julie Gordon knew she would need more out of middle hitter Ann Cobern Chapman if the Eagles hoped to win a volleyball state championship this season after moving up from Class 3A to 4A.

“I gave her the analogy that she played like a golden retriever,” Gordon said. “If she wanted to be really good, she had to play like a pit bull. So she adopted that nickname.”

The “pit bull” destroyed opposing teams this past fall, earning the Eagles a third consecutive state championship and leading Capital City Conference coaches to select her as the 2020 CCC Player of the Year.

“That’s what she calls me because I used to be an outside hitter and switched to middle hitter,” Chapman said. “Outside is more of a consistent player, where middle is more like, if you’re setting me, I’m trying to end the point. She had to tell me ‘you’re going to be aggressive and put it away.’ She said she had never seen me be mean, so she told me to be mean.”

Thinking back on the season, Chapman laughs at the analogy, insisting she was never “mean,” simply aggressive. Call it what you want, but she was almost automatic in helping her team adjust to 4A. The Eagles (33-7) were unbeaten (13-0) in their classification and 16-7 playing teams of higher classification, losing to Bayside Academy and Ramsay in 5A, Spanish Fort and Hartselle in 6A and Thompson and Baker in 7A.

“Against McGill-Toolen, her hitting percentage was over .500; against Auburn High, it was over .400,” Gordon noted. “For the season, she was almost at .450 and .300 is really good. At the .500 level, you’re saying every other ball is a kill. By being able to attack the net at all the different zones and have all these different shots in your arsenal, it’s hard to stop somebody like that.”

Chapman had 359 kills and a hitting percentage of .436, along with 158 blocks and 159 digs. Her vertical jump, honed through her participation as a starting forward on the basketball team, and footwork aided by her participation in the spring on the tennis team refined her ability as a middle hitter.

Well, that and a pep talk from Gordon before the start of the 2020 volleyball season.

“You think you’re hitting hard, you think you’re doing a good job, but let’s do better,” Gordon said. “You make one outstanding hit. Well, if you do it one time, I expect you to do it every time. She just gradually kept getting better and better and better. As a middle hitter, you have a lot of options you can run offensively and if they shut her down at one hit, then we ran her in a different location on the net. She could hit any hit in any zone of the net and her window was very easy for setters. If the setter put it up, she was going to put the ball away.”

After winning state championships in 2018 and 2019, the Eagles were expected to win it all again in 2020 despite moving up in classification. Chapman was a primary reason why the Eagles made it happen.

“In state (tournament play), all our fans were like, ‘ya’ll are going to win,’ but we were like, ‘you don’t understand, these teams are good this year,’” Chapman said. “That was our big focus this year. We knew what it was like to be at state, but we also knew not to take it for granted. Being a returning state champion kind of brings the danger that people are going to play better against you.”

ALL-CAPITAL CITY CONFERENCE VOLLEYBALL TEAM:

Madi Caddell, Sr., S, Montgomery Academy

Addison Cherry, So., S, Trinity

Mary Elizabeth Hill, Sr., MH, Trinity

Virginia Hope, Sr., OH, Montgomery Academy

Jacquelyn Miller, Sr., L, Trinity

Garrett Scott, Sr., L, Montgomery Academy

HONORABLE MENTION: Mary Davis Bricken, Sr., DS, Trinity; Merrily Capouya, Sr., OH, St. James; McRae Freeman, Sr., OH, Montgomery Academy; Danielle Greene, Jr., MH, St. James; Hannah Grace Griggs, Sr., L, St. James; Alexis Meshok, Sr., S, Catholic; Emma Moody, So., MH, Trinity; Jordan Smithee, Sr., OH, Alabama Christian; Riley Taylor, Sr., L, Catholic; Anaya Thomas, Sr., MH, Montgomery Academy; Alyson Thornton, So., S, Alabama Christian; Kay Yelverton, Sr., OH, Montgomery Academy.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR -- Ann Cobern Chapman, Montgomery Academy

COACH OF THE YEAR -- Sarah Dubberley, Trinity