Before Thursday night, the Fluvanna volleyball team was undefeated through four matches. Albemarle changed that with a Herculean effort from Maya Winterhoff to sweep the Flucos 3-0 in three sets.
“We ran the plays we wanted to run, our serve-receive was really good tonight, we were able to give our hitters options and we weren’t scrambling to figure out what to do, and everything was calm after the first pass,” said Patriots coach Lance Rogers.
Winterhoff finished with 25 kills and 14 digs on the night, continuing her hot start to the season that got kicked off with a 13-kill performance against Orange County.
In the first set, the Flucos got off to a good start, jumping out to a 3-1 lead. Then everything changed. The Patriots went on a run, firmly taking control of the set, and setting the tone for the rest of the match. Winterhoff played a huge role in that run, notching six kills during the spurt.
“We are going to do amazing this year, our passes were amazing, our sets were amazing, and we knew as soon as we got that good pass we were going to get the kill,” said Winterhoff.
After that run, the Patriots went on to take the first set of the match 25-18, and really kept hold of momentum going into the second set, fighting off any threat that the Flucos mounted. Like the first set, the Patriots took a big early lead and never really looked back, taking the second set 25-13. The Patriots also got standout performances from Keira Roach and Sophia Dawson. Roach had team highs in aces with six and assists with 31, while Dawson had eight kills and a team high 16 digs. Roach also moved into fifth place on the Albemarle volleyball career assists leaderboard, passing Ashley Smith and bringing her assist total to 1,127.
While they had their struggles, the Flucos refused to go quietly. They tried to fight their way back in the first two sets, and started off the third set in a 5-5 tie, attempting to keep the match alive. In the end however, the Patriots proved to be too much for the Flucos to handle, taking the third set and the match.
“I am really pleased, this is some much stronger competition than our last time out and I wanted to see how our kids would respond to that challenge and they responded admirably,” said Rogers.
The Flucos won’t have to wait long for a rematch. The two squads lock up again on Monday.
