Fluvanna County senior Lindsey Ward has already been a setter and a hitter during her career with the Flucos, and has been impressive in both roles, earning second team All-JD honors her sophomore year.
This season though? She’s locked into a new spot, moving to libero.
“If you’re an all around player you should be able to play any position,” Ward said. “I just go in there with all the confidence I have and if I mess up, I move on to the next ball.”
She’s not making mistakes very often and clearly the move is working for Fluvanna as a team. The Flucos got a hard fought, 3-0 sweep in a win against Western Albemarle Tuesday night in the latest installment of one of the Jefferson District’s most fierce rivalries.
“Her moving into that role for us this year is going to be a difference-maker,” said Fluvanna coach Christi Harlowe-Garrett. “She’s owning the backcourt because of her knowledge of the game and her IQ from setting and hitting. She’s doing a great job, my hat is off to her for digging in her senior year and taking on a whole new role.”
Ward’s move to the backline strengthens the Flucos on the backline in some obvious ways as she piled up 27 digs Tuesday, but it’s largely a feature of the Flucos’ youth movement the last couple of years starting to take centerstage. Faith Shields has emerged as one of the area’s best setters and it showed Tuesday as the sophomore who earned first team All-Jefferson District honors as a freshman rang up 27 assists on the night. A good portion of those assists went to senior Amy Glowatch and junior Sophia Denby who each notched nine kills.
“Faith Shields is a great kid, she just kept moving the ball around and giving it to the hitters and letting them find their way and get into a rhythm,” Harlowe-Garrett. “Thank goodness they did get into a little rhythm.”
Shields’ own kill finished off the match as she dumped the ball off a Ward dig to lift the Flucos past Western 25-23 in the decisive third game. The Warriors trailed 22-20 in that game before a Murphy kill cut the lead to 22-21. Sophomore Makayla Gentry then hit a heavy ball that Western managed to get up but couldn’t return. Glowatch eventually pushed the Flucos ahead 24-23 before Shields furnished the final nail with her quick kill.
Much of the match went that way. Western made the Flucos fight and claw for each win, with both teams making a lot of errors, which is to be expected after a layoff of more than a year and just a couple of games under their belt. The Flucos scratched out a 25-23 victory, then won a dramatic back-and-forth game two to pull out a 29-27 win and then had to battle back from that late deficit to win game three.
“Western is a scrappy team, they kept putting the ball back over and they were playing strong at the net,” Harlowe-Garrett said. “It ended up being a game of mistakes — it’s our second match with a less than two week preseason. I think everybody is doing really well, to have not been able to be together and have a week of tryouts and a week of practice and now we’re playing.”
The Warriors did a good job of capitalizing on Fluvanna mistakes with heady play on balls headed out of bounds, but Western also got some of its own offense going with Juliana Murphy notching six kills, Arianna Rocco finishing with five kills and Sofia Beard posting four kills. Amber Parker chipped 12 digs and Ellie Boitnott had 10 assists.
Beyond the numbers though, the Warriors’ youth took a step forward by battling back against the Flucos each and every game, particularly in the dramatic game two where Western created chance after chance to even the match.
“This was by far the best we’ve played this season,” said Western coach Julie Radlinski. “I just loved the heart and hustle and that they were starting to click out there.”
