Western Albemarle field hockey coach Milo Oakland started looking around during the Warriors’ warmup before taking on Maggie Walker in the Region 3A West semifinals Tuesday.
“Maybe 75 or 80 percent of these players have been in this situation before, whether it’s field hockey or lacrosse or track they’ve played in these big matches,” Oakland said. “And it showed.”
The Warriors jumped out to a lead in the opening minute and shut out Maggie Walker 3-1 to earn a spot in the Group 3A final four, the Region 3A West title game and another shot against James Monroe to go with it.
That opening goal came off of Kira Repich’s stick by way of a Joie Funk assist, and in no time the Warriors were up and Maggie Walker was left scrambling.
“We came out on fire,” Oakland said. “We scored a really nice combination goal and I think it shell-shocked them a little bit, and then Val (Hajek) took over.”
Senior Valerie Hajek finished the game with two unassisted goals, the first coming before halftime and the second coming with 9:16 left to close the door on any hope of a Maggie Walker comeback.
“We’ve run out of ways to describe her,” Oakland said. “She had great control and command of the ball, she distributed the ball really well today and then she took it upon herself to score off a corner and then another time where she created the opportunity herself. I can’t say enough about all of that.”
The win sets up a rematch with James Monroe, the team that beat Western in the Conference 28/29 final last week. It appears the Warriors are excited about getting another shot at the Jackets in the region title game.
“I can’t speak for all of them, but I know a lot of them are and I certainly am,” Oakland said. “You can almost go into it as a win-win scenario, nothing to lose.”
Western will play at James Monroe Thursday and will head to Virginia Beach next Friday for the Group 3A state final four.
