Western Albemarle junior Tess Lohr is on an absolute tear.
Lohr snapped out of a bit of a scoring funk last week in the Jefferson District field hockey championship, scoring a pair of critical goals. She kept the run going with a hat trick Tuesday night as the Warriors ran roughshod over a still developing Louisa County program 9-0 in the Region II quarterfinals.
“We definitely are connecting with our passes a lot better,” Lohr said. “In the second half coach (Mia Fields) challenged us not to dribble in and I think we made the best of that by passing as well as we did.”
Lohr’s offensive explosion — and a rock solid job of setting the table by Olivia Hajek who dished out a trio of assists and scored a goal in the win — has the Warriors in position to play for a trip to the state tournament. They’ll play for that right against a familiar foe, Jefferson District rival Charlottesville High School.
Seven different Warriors scored against the Lions as the Warriors dominated possessions throughout and didn’t allow Louisa much time at all to attack in the offensive zone. Sharp midfield play kept the ball on Western’s side most of the game.
“I think we need our strength in the midfield because we don’t want to break down when someone breaks down in the midfield,” Lohr said.
Louisa did improve in the second half, a positive sign for a program wrapping up just its fourth year of existence and graduating its first set of seniors that have played all four years. Hali Goad and Lindsey Jones are among the long-time members of the program, along with Austyn Monday, Kelcie Smith and Heather Bland. Those players have been instrumental to the program’s growth, building a strong foundation for the future at Louisa.
“They’re going to be hard to replace,” said Louisa coach Meredith Marconi. “They just worked really hard. It’s going to be really difficult to let them go.”
Western and Charlottesville face off Thursday at 6 p.m.
