If Hannah Miller, and in turn Fluvanna County, continues to play like she has the last two matches, the Flucos are going to be a force to be reckoned with down the stretch.
Miller unleashed 19 kills, blasting through around and over Monticello’s block all night as the Flucos avenged an early season loss to the Mustangs with a 3-1 victory Thursday night. The win places Fluvanna one game behind the Mustangs who are in second place in the Jefferson District, and all trail unbeaten Western Albemarle.
“(Miller) gets it done when she needs to, she works hard and she supports her teammates,” said Christi Harlowe-Garrett. “You can’t ask for a better kid than that.”
Miller also had four aces and three blocks, but those statistics don’t tell the whole story, at least according to Monticello coach John Mitchem. While the Mustangs matched Miller with a dominant individual offensive performance of their own by Kate Geldmacher (21 kills), Monticello couldn’t counter Miller’s defensive effort.
“Miller did a great job of shutting down our middle attack, so hats off to her,” Mitchem said. “We couldn’t get a block set up to save our life.”
Monticello’s struggles with Miller and the Flucos’ block didn’t really start until game two. The Mustangs grabbed a 1-0 lead with a hard fought 30-28 win in the opening frame, with a pair of Geldmacher aces capping the win and closing out the Flucos. But Fluvanna’s defense settled in during game two and carried Fluvanna to a 25-21 win. They followed that with two absolute battles, 29-27 wins in games three and four.
Monticello actually managed a 22-14 lead in the third game, but Miller’s run at the service line pulled Fluvanna even at 24-24. In extra points, Fluvanna went down 27-26 on a Geldmacher ace that hit the net and fell in, but three straight points, including a kill on an over ball by Terry Crickenberger, gave Fluvanna a 2-1 edge in the match.
In game four, Fluvanna held a 23-19 advantage but couldn’t come up with the last few points, with Rianna Jansen anchoring a Monticello rally at the service line. Mariah Williams came up with a huge dig on an attack by Miller and later had a kill of her own to give Monticello another 27-26 advantage. Again, Fluvanna came up with three points to close it out, including a Sammi Toy serve that finished off Monticello.
Miller was in the back row during the last few points of game four, but she managed a critical kill from the back row that evened the game at 26-26.
“That’s something she’s been working on, it’s adjusting her timing of her swing,” Harlowe-Garrett said. “That’s something she’s been working so she can capitalize back there when she needs to.”
The win caps a big leap forward of a week for Fluvanna, who took Western Albemarle to the brink Tuesday in a 3-2 match at home. The Flucos got solid offensive performances out of Taylor Beck and Crickenberger, who had had 10 kills and five kills respectively. Toy, the Flucos’ setter, had 32 assists in the effort.
Monticello got a balanced offensive performance quite similar to Fluvanna’s. Charlotte Devine had nine kills for Monticello while Amy Skolnick and Brittany Scott had five and six respectively.
The game was a “Dig Pink” night to benefit breast cancer, and the Mustangs’ program managed to raise over $1,000 for the Susan G. Komen fund.
