Western Albemarle’s Adriana Bland just wants to play.
“I’ll play anywhere as long as I’m playing,” Bland said.
That’s a good thing for the Warriors because with a rash of recent injuries, they’ve had to shift people around, moving Bland to libero from her usual spot as a hitter. She handled the shift well with a team-high 12 digs as Western Albemarle pulled off a rare sweep of Albemarle, winning 3-0 925-21, 25-22 and 25-16) over the Patriots.
“We always want to beat Albemarle, it’s a top goal,” Bland said. “But to do that with the lineup that we had, the problems that we had, it’s a really good outcome.”
Bland’s shift forced her to go from attacking at the net to helping along the back line, a big transition and a lot to ask on the fly from any player.
“It’s a lot of pressure but I’ll take it,” Bland said. “It changes a lot of things. I played a little bit last year, but not to this extent. Moving people around definitely messes up a lot of things.”
The Warriors overcame that disruption though to pick up the critical win over the Patriots. They will be shorthanded awhile longer too as Jasmine Monge nurses an injury and Ellie Bright recovers from an ankle sprain. But in the meantime, the Warriors have stepped up across the board defensively in an effort to offset the players that are out while also shifting into new roles.
“That’s something we stress heavily every day in practice,” said Western coach Ron Pack. “We tell our hitters, if you want to swing you’ve got to play defense. That’s the phase of the game we’re probably playing the best at, is defense. Tonight our intensity was the best it has been all season, we played with a lot of heart and we played aggressive.”
Bland’s successful move was big while Alema Atuaia put together a huge night with a team-high nine kills as well as nine digs. Cassidy Wilson’s five kills and two blocks were also a boost. That all led up to a big-time victory for the Warriors over a quality opponent.
“When you play Mark’s team you know you’re going to play a well-coached team, a team that’s going to play good defense and pass well,” Pack said. “Any time you can beat a team coached by Mark you’ve accomplished something.”
Courtney Berry continued her steady play in the middle, posting eight kills on the night while also registering three aces. Olivia Nichols also proved steady with eight kills. Andrea Vial pulled the trigger offensively for the Warriors, finishing with 28 assists at the setter spot.
The Patriots, meanwhile, struggled to get things going in the right direction, with Western asserting itself as the match went on.
“We’ve got to discover a little bit of courage and believe we can play with people,” said Albemarle coach Mark Ragland. “Sometimes we start believing in the other team more than ourselves and that was apparent tonight in a lot of stretches. Some good things happened tonight (though), I thought our blocking was good, we kept the other team off balance there some.”
Albemarle actually had a huge night on the block, with Gabbi DeGennaro notching a team season-high of eight blocks on the night as the Patriots put together 13 as a team. Emery Hawkins’ four blocks.Hitting was a struggle though with the Patriots finishing with a frustrating .062 hitting percentage, in part a product of the Warriors’ renewed defensive effort. Danielle LaRosa’s six kills led the way while Madison Warlick and DeGennaro had five kills a piece. Sarah Hanssen finished with 23 assists while Victoria Bickley had nine digs.
