Heading into the match against Massaponox, Albemarle coach Mark Ragland was hoping that he would get a chance to play some of those on his team who haven’t seen a lot of playing time. He did, and his players rewarded the coach with the largest margin of victory on the night in the Patriots 3-0 sweep of the Panthers, 25-12, 25-11, 25-8.
“That must be bad coaching on my part, I should have had those kids in from the beginning.” Ragland joked. “Unfortunately, so many of our points in that game came off of our serve so we didn’t really get a chance to rally back and forth very much in that game. But you know, I’m proud that all of them got out there and took good swings and were in position most of the time and that’s usually something that takes a while to learn.”
One of those who never comes off the bench, senior Meg Carpenter, playing on the right side for the first time on varsity, was happy to see those who don’t start get an opportunity to see the court.
“It’s definitely motivating for the rest of the team,” said Carpenter, who had five service points and five digs. “The younger players want to play so badly it drives us to play harder. It was good and fun to watch because we’re all just out there to have fun.”
In the first half of game one the two teams went point for point, but in the second half Albemarle flipped the switch and went on a 15-3 run and a 1-0 lead. In game two the Patriots jumped out to a 5-0 lead and didn’t waver from their to jump out to the 2-0 lead that allowed Ragland to make his substitutions.
Senior Abby Hendrix had 20 assists despite playing libero for the third game. Hannah Lawson led the Patriots with nine kills while teammates Stephanie Strauss and Megan Napolitano finished with six and four respectively.
Albemarle (10-2, 8-0 Commonwealth) will host Stafford on Thursday at 7 p.m.
