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Albemarle stays the course

It’s clear Hannah Lawson is Albemarle’s horse on the outside — that’s been established since early in the season.

But if Megan Napolitano, Stephanie Strauss and Katie Weatherill all play like they did against Mountain View in the Patriots’ district semifinal victory Thursday night 3-0, it’ll be hard to tell who to key on for Albemarle’s opponents.

In just the three games, Lawson filled up the stat sheet with 14 kills while Napolitano and Strauss each chipped in six kills. Meanwhile, Weatherhill knocked down four of her own to round out a multi-faceted offensive effort.

What was more impressive about the performance was that it came on a night where the Patriots’ passing struggled because of an unorthodox Mountain View attack that gave Albemarle some trouble throughout the contest.

“They have some big kids they move around and they don’t play in the same position, so your blockers have to be keying on that,” Ragland said. “The other thing is they attack very well from the back row and you don’t see a lot of teams that do that.”

Strauss was particularly clutch — the junior seemed to come up with critical blocks or kills whenever Albemarle needed to halt a Mountain View run.

“She did a nice job — she’s still learning to hit corners, but she had some big moments tonight,” Ragland said.

Several of Lawson’s 14 kills also came at opportune times. She buried three points during a 10-1 run at the end of the second game that helped close out what was a close game at the 16-14 mark.

Freshman Jessica Block did an admirable job off the bench as a server, a role she’s been used in throughout the season at times. She presided over an 8-0 run during game three that helped Albemarle pull away. Abby Hendrix finished with 26 assists.

Next up the Patriots take on district archrival Colonial Forge in the tournament final at home Thursday at 6 p.m. Albemarle has already wrapped up a Northwest Region playoff berth.

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