Western clearly has a target on its collective back.
You don’t win as many Jefferson District games as Western Albemarle has during Lance Rogers’ tenure and not expect opposing teams to be fired up when the Warriors roll into town.
“I was hoping that we would be fired up,” said William Monroe coach Denis Hoffman. “I told the kids that if you don’t play your ‘A’ game you can’t win against them. You’ve got to play with heart and fire.”
Hosting unbeaten Western on Thursday night, the Greene Dragons were more than fired up. But in the end, passion and intensity wasn’t enough take down Warriors as Western left Stanardsville with their perfect record intact after a 3-1 victory, 22-25, 25-16, 25-17, 25-9.
“They served us off the floor in that first game,” Rogers said. “But we were able to pick up our accuracy, our passing after that.”
The win was the 52nd straight JD victory for Western’s program, bettering their previous streak of 51 straight broken by Monroe back in 2005.
With the crowd behind them, William Monroe was able to roll with the punches before taking a five-point lead late in the game and holding off a late Western rally.
“It wasn’t anything fancy,” Hoffman said. “It was just about keeping the ball in play, keeping it in their court and going after everything as hard as we could.”
Western didn’t stay down long. The Warriors got back on their feet fast behind a balanced attack from Sarah Harper, Ana Asher and Amanda Gough. Western was able to jump to big leads midway through each of the last three games, and Rogers’ experienced group never let go.
“It was so intense out there,” said Western senior Ana Asher. “It was the most intense match I’ve been a part of this year.”
Asher played a major role in helping the Warriors bounce back. The senior got warmed up in the second game and had a handful of heavy-handed kills that help to rally her team together.
“Ana’s just so extraordinarily athletic,” Rogers said. “She can do that when we let her play athletically. There’s a tendency as a coach to want to micro-manage what’s going on out there. You want to cure the technical faults. You want to get the footwork just right. Sometimes it’s better to just let the athlete be the athlete and she’s one of those kids.”
While the Dragons fell, Hoffman was happy to see her young team go up against the vaunted Warriors.
“I love playing Western,” Hoffman said. “They’re such a great team. I feel like we always can learn something from them, win or lose.”
Asher put up six kills and had three blocks. Gough also contributed six kills. Harper contributed seven kills and 10 digs, tying Kristen Pack, who also had seven kills, for the team-high.
For Monroe, Alex Cave had four kills, eight service points and three aces. Cally Troutman also posted four kills and three blocks.
Western (10-0, 6-0) travels to Orange County on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
William Monroe (6-4, 3-2) gets a breather from district play as it hosts Madison County on Monday at 7 p.m.
