The Albemarle Patriots showed some residual signs of weakness after a marathon finish to the regular season, but it didn’t matter much as Albemarle picked up a 3-1 victory over Halifax in the Conference 16 semifinal on Wednesday night.
The number two team in the conference struggled with Halifax County in the first set. The teams traded points throughout the game, most of Halifax’s points coming off Patriot blunders.
The Patriots then rallied back from a 16-14 deficit on the strength of an Alexis Duday kill midway through the first set. After a few acrobatic assists by Ellie Benning, Albemarle pulled ahead and won game one 25-21.
Although the second game started off close, it was quickly broken open after a sprawling one-handed bump by Benning set Cindy Yu up to finish for a point to make it 3-2 for the Patriots. The Comets lost momentum in game two, finding it difficult to return kills from Duday and Stephanie Lugus. Combined the two hitters had 30 kills throughout the night paired with Benning’s 51 assists and a collective 56 points off services on the night.
Halifax was down 2-0 through two games in the semifinal, however a few errors by the Patriots made way for senior Taylor Barnes to preserve extend the match. Barnes smashed home nine kills for the Comets on the night, sending the Patriots diving every which way but to no avail in game three. Early in game three Madison Puryear set the ball to Barnes, who hammered the ball into the floorboards just before Albemarle’s Victoria Bickley could reach it shooting the Comets into a 3-2 lead. The score would reach 25-25, giving Halifax a glimmer of hope. Point after point was won and blow after blow traded until finally a Patriot miscue handed game three to Halifax.
Albemarle bounced back quickly though. Coming around the net the Patriots were yelling, clapping and encouraging one another. That energy helped pull off a 25-12 game four triumph.
On the night, Victoria Bickley led all servers with 15 points and thiree aces. Lugus led all hitters with 16 kills while Duday notched 14 kills. Emery Hawkins and Madison Warlick each notched eight kills. Benning’s 51 assists were a season high for the Patriots’ setter and Yu came up with 17 digs while Sarah Hanssen had 15 digs on the night.
The win advances Albemarle into the Conference 16 championships against Atlee. At the Albemarle Showcase tournament last September, Albemarle swept Atlee 3-0. However Atlee is the top-seed in the tournament and holds home-court advantage for the championship match tomorrow night.
