There will be only one champion program to ever win a Conference 29 girls soccer tournament.
With the conference set to be tossed on the scrap heap of VHSL history after another realignment going into next year, Western Albemarle’s girls program won its fourth-straight and final conference title with an 8-0 blowout over Broadway.
“We’ve just been working so hard this season and we knew that we were going to have 15 practice games really to capitalize on the postseason,” said Western junior Abigail Zimmerman. “That’s where it is time to grind it out.”
Western’s dominance in the conference wasn’t unexpected by any means, but it’s another thing to execute and win the title each spring, and the Warriors have done that year in and year out.
“This is one of the goals for the year and for these seniors to do it all four years is a big accomplishment that they should be proud of,” said Western coach Jake Desch.
Western’s four-peat as conference champion went as smoothly as the Warriors could’ve hoped, with Western scoring early and often. The Warriors got there with some tactical evolution that gave them more flexibility to attack from all over the formation.
“We always think that we need to push down the sides but we played a different thing with me where we played a center-mid a little higher so we could combine a little off the center more than just press down the flanks,” Zimmerman said. “I think that that helped us more.”
Zimmerman scored twice for Western, but the Warriors were all about balance against the Gobblers, with Jane Romness, Savannah Wilson, Julia Berg, Katrine Berg and Elizabeth Fabiano each scoring once. Broadway also had an own goal.
The win gave the Warriors a home game to start the Region 3A West tournament, a critical piece of the puzzle as they continue to point toward a run to the state title game.
“This gives us a lot of momentum, we knew that if we won we’d have a home game,” Zimmerman said. “Playing a home game Monday is huge for us going into it.”
