All throughout postseason competition, the Albemarle girls soccer team has seen some stiff competition in the form of teams like Atlee, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson. But the Patriots prevailed over all of those opponents, leading up to a 5A North Region semifinal clash with Briar Woods to determine who would move on to the state tournament.
The tough gauntlet paid off for the Patriots, who will be facing still more tough opponents in state competition, an opportunity they earned with a 1-0 win over the visiting Falcons, guaranteeing Albemarle at least two more games on the season. That includes a berth in the Group 5A state semifinals, the first such berth in recent memory for the Patriots who’ve regularly gotten knocked out in the region tournament.
“It’s so nice to get this win against such a good team in Briar Woods,” Albemarle coach Amy Sherrill said. “We have seen so many good teams, it helps our confidence, helps us moving forward and gets us excited for what’s to come.”
The Patriots’ goal came off its first corner attempt of the game, a ball which bounded off of a couple different heads before being finished by Sunny Gelnovatch in the 45th minute.
That goal was set up by a great give-and-go involving Gelnovatch and Brooke Bauman, whose shot grazed a Briar Woods defender as it just missed the net. That gave Albemarle the set piece it needed to take the lead as Gelnovatch headed it past Falcon goalkeeper Olivia Jones in a crowd in front of the goal off the ensuing corner.
“We had a very good play that led up to the corner,” Gelnovatch said. “We’ve scored a goal on it each game. Brooke played a great ball and I was just there.”
The game was rather evenly matched from the beginning. The Falcons actually outshot Albemarle 7-6, but were kept off the scoreboard by a fantastic performance from Patriot keeper Ayanah Tyler-Cooper, who stopped the five Briar Woods shots that didn’t sail dangerously over the crossbar. Both teams registered five corners, all of them coming in the second half.
Tyler-Cooper took a fall on the ball after stopping a Falcon corner in the 57th minute and remained shaken up on the field, giving the home crowd as well as her teammates and coaches a bit of a scare. But she returned to the game at the next dead ball and Briar Woods never seriously threatened again as most of the last 20 minutes was played with Albemarle on the attack.
“We weren’t worried at all,” Sherrill said. “We faced some adversity in our last game against Thomas Jefferson, where Catie had to come in, but I knew Ayanah would be good to go.”
Albemarle next faces Tuscarora in the regional final at 5:30 Friday afternoon, with both teams assured of a berth in the state tournament.
“Our team chemistry is on point right now,” Gelnovatch said. “This is the best we’ve ever been.”
