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Monticello volleyball taps bench, sweeps Charlottesville

It’s not just what you do in the big games, it’s what you do in the games you’re expected to win. Monticello is looking to find the form it hasn’t seen since the 2009-2011 seasons when then coach John Mitchem had the Mustangs at or near the top of the standings. With first year coach Meg Carptener at the helm, Monticello is trying to climb the ranks and in their win over Charlottesville, the Mustangs were able to work in their bench, work on a variety of things offensively as they put together a 3-0 win (25-17, 25-21, 25-15).

 

“We tried to work on the things we worked on in practice and fine tune those things, polish them up,” Carpenter said. “When you’re playing a really face paced game it’s hard to do that and get those single focuses. It was nice because Charlottesville showed us a different defense that we’ve seen from some other teams. So that was a great opportunity to work on adjusting to that and see how quickly we could do it. It took some time and we improved and so this was great.”

 

Monticello took a 5-point lead in the first set at 15-10 and steadily increased its advantage with an 8-3 run led by strong serves and the attack up front. The Mustangs and Black Knights split the final four points to put the visitors up 1-0 after a 25-17 win.

 

“Our passing was good and so that started the offense,” said Monticello senior Mariah Brown. “That was the strongest thing that we needed but then the serves were strong too.”

 

The second game saw Monticello work in a variety of players and Charlottesville put up its best set of the night. The Mustangs went up 7-3 to start and eventually claimed an 18-8 lead behind an 11-5 run. The Black Knights responded with Kennedy Wardlaw asserting herself, particularly at the service line. Charlottesville went on a 9-3 run to make it close at 20-18. From there it was an even back and forth of rallies but Monticello finished late for a 25-21 win to go up 2-0.

 

“We played together as a team really well and the fact that we had bench players working well with players who play all the time means that anybody can be out there and we can still be a good team,” Brown said. “That’s really exciting.”

 

The third set was arguably the Mustangs’ best. While Carpenter continued to roll through her bench, a strong lead was established at 8-4. The Black Knights kept pace up to 12-9 but Monticello raced back ahead with 10-3 run to stake a 9-point advantage. And by trading points back at 3-2 the Mustangs finished off the match for a 3-0 sweep with a 25-15 win in the third.

 

“It was great to meet some team goals of having everyone get playing time and be put in a position to play meaningful time,” Carpenter said. “People that haven’t had that opportunity got it and were successful and got great support from their teammates. That’s something I appreciate a lot.”

 

On the night for Monticello, junior Piper Goodman had seven kills while sophomore Allie Cognata had five kills. Brown had four aces to go with three kills. Rebecca Spear led with eight digs while Goodman had seven. Jewell Pugh had 17 assists and six aces.

 

The Mustangs host Powhatan on Thursday while the Black Knights head to Albemarle, also on Thursday.

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