Albemarle volleyball waited a long time to get a chance to compete, enduring being paused the first two weeks of the season due to a quarantine on top of the delay caused by the shift from fall to March that all volleyball players endured. For a brief few points, that extended layoff showed.
“We had a really slow start I think, but once we realized we were out here to play, we’re with our best friends we just really took off,” said senior Keira Roach.
Once Maya Winterhoff got cranking in the second game, the Patriots really didn’t have much to worry about as they rolled 3-0 over Orange County winning 25-11, 25-7 and 25-7.
“I wish diggers got the same appreciation as hitters because our defense was pretty good on a few plays,” said Albemarle coach Lance Rogers in his debut as the Patriots’ head man after taking over for the retired Mark Ragland this offseason. “But yeah, the thunderous kill gets the news.”
Winterhoff unleashed 13 kills on the night and unleashed a blistering hitting percentage of 81.2, going without an error for the entire match. If Winterhoff’s opening game was any indication, the junior is going to be a major problem for opposing defenses again this season.
“It really gets us pumped, gets us going — she’s a killer and I’m so glad she’s a part of our team,” said Albemarle senior Sophia Dawson. “She’s definitely a big part of it.”
Roach’s presence makes Winterhoff even more difficult to defend. The senior setter who’s bound for Susquehanna University, is a tremendous setup artist and notched 29 assists on the night. But it’s her ability to attack defenses who are trying to load up on Winterhoff with a quick dump kill — she had seven on the night from a variety of different angles — that makes her one of the area’s most dangerous setters.
“She’s a threat that other teams have to honor,” Rogers said. “That’s what they’ll expect from her at the next level.”
Developing that ability to make opposing defenses pay for overshifting has been a long process for Roach, requiring her to be dedicated to her craft over the last four years.
“I’ve been working on it — it has been a long time,” said Roach who also chipped in five aces. “We were so far ahead that I was just trying things just to try them out and it worked out well.”
Dawson finished with a team-high nine digs on the night and also notched five kills while Emma Figler finished with seven kills. Senior Trinity Swartz had six kills, three aces and presided over a long run at the service line and had 15 service points on the night.
“We looked surprisingly crisp, I thought we’d show a lot more rust,” Rogers said. “We just came out of a quarantine Friday with practice and here we are with our first match on Monday. I was surprised we looked as smooth as we did.”
Albemarle will square off Fluvanna County Thursday while the Hornets get a break until next week.
