The Selma High Lady Saints improved its record to 9-10 on Wednesday afternoon after sweeping the Keith Lady Bears in three sets 25-9, 25-21 and 25-14.

“Keith looks much better,” Selma High head volleyball coach Katasha Turner said. “At the beginning of the season, they beat us. We came back the last two dates that we’ve seen them and played them in very good competition. They look like they’re continuing to get better.”

Selma was able to hold its serve for the majority of the match, as the team went on big runs to separate themselves from the Lady Bears.

Both teams displayed their recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness month during the game. The Lady Saints wore pink ribbons, socks and accessories, while the Lady Bears came out of the locker room with new pink jerseys to show their support for the cause.

“We normally do socks or ribbons or something like that, but this year we wanted to go a little further because my mom’s best friend, Sheryl Dansby, is a year cancer-free from breast cancer,” Keith head volleyball coach Towanna Flennory said. “Now, it’s dear to me. They say you don’t really take a cause until it really hits you. It affected my family and I just felt like we wanted to go a little extreme and really represent it.”

Even in competition, the fight against breast cancer brightened up the floor.

The Lady Saints had a 15-5 lead in the first set before the first timeout was called, and only allowed the Lady Bears to score four more points for the remainder of that set.

Keith played a tighter game in the second set and capitalized off Selma’s mistakes to keep the score close. The Lady Bears, who trailed by five-or-six points for the majority of the second set, cut the lead down to 23-21.

The Lady Bears broke Selma’s serve on match point, but were unable to capitalize on its own serve to finish off the rally.

“Today, we made a lot of unforced errors,” Flennory said. “We didn’t play well. We didn’t serve well the first two games. We did pick it up in the third game, but we made too many unforced errors… We can’t beat anyone if we don’t cleanup those unforced errors.”

Keith’s momentum carried into the third set as they matched Selma point-for-point up until the first time out with the score tied 8-8.

“I did have some rookies that showed up today at the net with defense and blocking,” Flennory said. “As a team, we didn’t serve the ball well. But some of our rookies really stepped up… Overall, today I was impressed with our energy. Something we have been lacking the last couple of games.”

The Lady Saints ended the Bears swing and went on a scoring 9-1 scoring streak that gave Selma a 17-9 lead before Flennory called her second timeout.

“Our serves and the placement of our serves was the key to that,” Turner said. “That made a big difference for the runs we had in the back end of the game.”

Selma finished off the game and completed the sweep.

However, the Lady Saints aren’t done for the week. They matchup against area-opponent Stanhope Elmore on Thursday and have a full-slate of games on Saturday when they host the Pink Out Jam Tournament for Breast Cancer Awareness.

The Lady Bears have a home area game on Thursday against Sweetwater.