Three close sets, but three that saw Monroe come out on top with late pushes in each. William Monroe has a young roster after strong group of seniors rolled through last year, but with a 3-0 win at in its home opener against Orange, 25-22, 25-15, 25-20, the Dragons are out to a quick 4-2 start to the season.
“This season has been awesome because we’ve been behind in games and the girls are finding that drive inside to get back and stay calm and work it out,” said Dragons coach Leah Wimmer. “We just kept trying to keep our mindset focused and calm and I think we did that tonight. They’ve worked so hard in practice to find the holes and hitting their spots. Orange was playing really well defensively so it wasn’t easy, but our girls did well to fight through it and find a way.”
While all three sets were contested throughout, the first certainly set the tone. The Dragons got off to an 8-3 start only to have the Hornets race back to make a 5-0 run with a pair of aces from Ashton Wolfrey to make it 9-8. It was back-and-forth from there with Monroe taking a timeout down 19-16 but then a 4-0 spurt forced an Orange timeout as they suddenly trailed 20-19. The Dragons jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the match with Mara Woolford picking up the set ending kill at 25-22.
“We’re all open people, all working together, it’s not one senior and a bunch (of underclassmen),” said Monroe senior Ainslie Whitworth. “We talked out it in the first set, we realized we needed to communicate better, get to our specific spots. Once we figured that out we got the job done.”
In the second set, it was another tight battle, but the best set for the Dragons. Monroe led 11-9 with neither team being separated by more than two points through that stretch, but with sophomore MaryKelly Pahuta making it 13-10 the Dragons got a little space to work with. That led to a 10-3 run to close out the second set at 25-15 with six straight service points from Woolford.
“Our first set wasn’t our best showing so in between games we talked about that,” Whitworth said. “We talked about our positioning and talked about taking our game up to the right level, so we just tried to take our game up.”
The third set started out to-and-fro with Monroe leading 12-11 to start but piecing together a 7-1 run led by Whitmarsh to open up a solid margin. Orange was able to claw back and make it 23-20 but the Dragons wrapped things up with Woolford picking up one last kill to make it 25-20 and a clean sweep.
“Mara has a been a huge asset so far, kind of a quiet assassin, a quiet weapon,” Wimmer said. “Last year she played outside hitter and this year we’ve put her in as a setter to run a 6-2 to where she’s setting in some spots and then able to play offense some and hit in the front row too. We’ve been really pleased with what’s she done so far.”
For Orange, while the loss was an early season lesson, and hanging with a team that gave them troubles last year while adjusting to their new 6-2 offense with Wolfrey and Allyson Aylor splitting time at libero has Hornets coach Brianna Hoover excited about the potential.
“We are working through a lot of rotations right now just trying to figure out what’s best and I liked what I saw because the girls fought hard, real hard,” Hoover said. “We’re working it out and seeing who hits best off of who and it’s been good so far. Last season was tough with drama on the court but this season has been fantastic early because they’re working so well together and they like doing it. I’m excited about this.”
Monroe (4-2) will face Spotswood next while Orange (0-2) heads to play Madison County with both matches on Thursday.
