There wasn’t much time for adjustments or improvements for Albemarle or Fluvanna County volleyball to make. The two standout programs locked up Thursday and after a single day of practice locked up again Monday night.
“We controlled the things we could control and tried to make a few adjustments here and there but nothing too fancy, there wasn’t enough time,” said Albemarle coach Lance Rogers. “It seemed to work the first time.”
It worked again this time, with the Patriots sweeping the Flucos 3-0 as both teams’ slight adjustments seemed to offset each other.
After surrendering 25 kills to Mya Winterhoff in last week’s clash, Fluvanna tried to prevent Winterhoff from controlling the game as a hitter again and to some extent it worked, though Winterhoff still rang up 15 kills at a blistering hitting percentage of .467 on the night.
“Their strategy — and it wasn’t an unsound one — was to serve Maya and try and take her out of the offense,” Rogers said. “She responded to the challenge beautifully, her passes were spot on tonight.”
The Flucos’ focus on neutralizing Winterhoff — which is likely to be every Albemarle opponent’s focus this year, because the alternative is her just cranking out kill after kill — opened things up for Sophia Dawson, who notched 10 kills as part of an impressive all around night with a team-high 11 digs and five aces. Three of those aces came at the end of the third game as Dawson unleashed three-straight to close out the match.
“We always knew she was a very strong server, so it was great to see her put that in the game,” said Albemarle’s Trinity Swartz.
Keira Roach finished with 26 assists on the night to help trigger the Patriots’ offense. Defensively, the Patriots looked to offset Fluvanna’s own offensive weapon. Sophia Denby managed a team high seven kills, but she had to work for each and every one of those.
“We knew that their outside (Denby) was really good so we made sure to block that and we kept the momentum up and it worked out,” Swartz said.
Fluvanna, who already has a critical sweep of Western under its belt, knew it was facing a steep challenge against the Patriots’ front line after what they experienced last week. Still, the Flucos’ young group keeps getting better each and every night and should benefit from facing a challenging schedule to start the season as the year progresses.
“The girls are working hard but (Albemarle) has a very strong offense so you make one adjustment to take care of this one and somebody else creeps up and can do the same thing,” said Fluvanna coach Christi Harlowe-Garrett. “We were able to rally with them tonight and they just kept coming at us and hammering it down. They’re a good team.”
Faith Shields had 15 assists for the Flucos.
Both squads get little time to rest as the Flucos face Monticello in a critical Jefferson District clash Tuesday while Albemarle hosts Louisa Tuesday before locking up with rival Western Wednesday at home.
