The Chamblee Lady Bulldogs broke a string of three consecutive runners-up finishes in the 5th Annual DeKalb County Spikefest Volleyball Tournament with a 25-23, 25-19 win over the Decatur Lady Bulldogs in the tournament championship game on Saturday at Chamblee.

Chamblee won the inaugural Spikefest in 2014, but finished as runner-up in 2015 and 2016 to Dunwoody while falling to Decatur in the Gold Bracket championship in 2017.

Leading 10-9 in the first game, Chamblee (4-0) went on a 6-0 run to go up 16-9. Decatur battled back to tie the game at 17-17 and 18-18 before a Jade Watson spike on an assist from Ava Grace Samford and an Erin Carpenter block at the net started a 5-0 run for the Lady Bulldogs.

Decatur staved off two set points before Samford set up tournament Most Valuable Player Becca Evans for the put away to seal a 1-0 advantage in the best-of-three championship match.

Evans had three big kills in the second game as the Lady Bulldogs built a 23-15 lead. Decatur answered with three consecutive points to make it 23-18 before Samford had a nice touch shot at the net into an open court to give Chamblee match point at 24-18.

Decatur’s Annalisa Mendoza helped stave off the match point with a big hit off a Chamblee blocker to close the gap to 24-19. Evans then completed her MVP performance with a shot off a Decatur defender that bounced out of reach of any other player for the championship point.

Chamblee won four consecutive matches for the titles including wins over Tucker (25-4, 25-2), Druid Hills (25-8, 25-9) and Lakeside (25-17, 25-8).

Decatur finished 3-1 in the tournament with wins over Cedar Grove (25-3, 25-12), Dunwoody (25-23, 25-19) and Redan (25-12, 25-11).

Dunwoody (6-1), the 2015 overall champion and Gold Bracket champ in 2016, defeated the Lakeside Lady Vikings (3-2) 25-16, 25-17 in the consolation finals at Chamblee to take third in the tournament.

The Wildcats pulled away from a 16-14 lead with a 9-2 run to finish the first game to take a 1-0 lead in the consolation finals. A similar 9-3 run finished out the match for the third-place trophy.

Dunwoody was 5-1 in the tournament with wins over Southwest DeKalb (25-10, 25-9), Cedar Grove (25-5, 25-15), Southwest DeKalb again (25-12, 25-15) and Redan (25-7, 25-2). The only loss was a tough 25-23, 25-19 loss to Decatur.

Lakeside was 3-2 in the tournament including wins over Cross Keys (25-1, 25-6), Clarkston (25-15, 25-16) and Arabia Mountain (25-5, 25-20). The first loss was a 25-17, 25-8 loss to Chamblee in the semifinals.