By Ryan Yemen
LORTON — They took down archrival Colonial Forge not once, but twice and in the process, won the Commonwealth District for the first time in more than a five years.
They finished second in the Northwest District. They earned a bid in the Group AAA tournament for the second straight year.
But on Tuesday night in the quarterfinals of the state tourney, the Albemarle volleyball team’s title defense officially came to an end as they fell on the road to a tall, talented South County team, 3-0 (25-17, 25-19, 25-14).
“I told the kids before we got off the bus ‘No matter what happens we’ve had a great season,’” Ragland said. “We’ve really overachieved this year.”
It was a tough night for the Albemarle, as they struggled with the Stallions’ jump serve, and as such, struggled to get their offense rolling in all three games. South County scored the first point in all three games and never trailed in the match. Behind their heavy hitters, Antwi and Lindsay Stevens, the Stallions were able to jump out to early three point leads in each game and hold off the Patriots a healthy distance from their lead.
“We’re a team that has a lot of players that people don’t really know about but I think that will change now,” said Stallions coach Dave Prahl. “My hitters, when they get going they’re pretty much unstoppable. And anyone who doesn’t know Simone Antwi coming in is in for trouble.”
The two Stallions combined for 37 kills. South County also had nine aces on the night.
The Patriots best showing came in the second game when, after falling behind by as many as 12 points, Albemarle was able to roll out a late 9-2 run behind Hannah Lawson and Megan Napolitano, getting as close as five points, but the rally wound up coming just a bit too late.
“We just didn’t serve receive well tonight,” Ragland said. “If you don’t serve receive, you don’t win. (South County) served tough tonight and their hitters did a great job.”
Lawson led the Patriots with 11 kills and three blocks. Abby Hendrix had 19 assists.
The loss brings an end to several storied careers. The Patriots will lose Lawson, Meg Carpenter, Abby Hendrix, Katie Weatherill, and Taylor Pritchard to graduation. And while last year’s title run sticks out as the shining moment of their years at Albemarle, it’s not hard to argue that the Patriots title defense was every bit as impressive considering the odds they were up against.
“Without these seniors we would not have won nearly as many matches as we did this year,” Ragland said. “They were just so determined and bought into everything I asked them to do.”
According to one of those five seniors, so much of this team’s success came from refusing to believe what others thought of them.
“In general I think we did a good job of stepping it up,” Carpenter said. “We just played really hard despite the fact we lost those six seniors last year. I think a lot of people doubted our ability after winning the title and we did a really good job of was not believing any of that (talk).”
