Stories

Just out of reach

YORKTOWN — Grafton’s fans made the Clippers’ gym a hostile place, and the multi-faceted Grafton offensive attack put Western Albemarle’s back line through the ringer. But the Warriors, after dropping the first two games, battled back.

It just wasn’t enough.

The Warriors’ lightning fast play couldn’t counter Grafton High’s height and inspired defensive play, and Western fell 3-1 in the Group AA state quarterfinals Tuesday, ending the Warriors’ season.

Even with Sarah Harper, Chastity Lacy and Ana Asher unleashing spirited attacks at the net, Grafton seemed to come up with dig after dig, despite the fact that Western’s up-tempo offensive system had the potential to give the Clippers fits.

“We have never played a team this year that has as quick of a pace of game,” said Grafton coach Dena Montini. “I didn’t know how my kids would react to that since they haven’t done that.”

They reacted well, jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first two games on the strength of a defense that seemed unfazed by the Warriors speed-oriented offense.

“I saw things I’ve never seen all year — not that I didn’t think they were capable of it, but we’ve never had anyone challenge us like that,” Montini said.

Grafton’s defensive performance left Western scrambling to crate points and led to a number of offspeed, creative attacks by the Warriors. Those efforts helped Western claw back in game three after a disappointing second frame where Grafton ran away with the win on a series of service errors by the Warriors.

“We knew they were a high-powered offense — we were surprised at how good defensively they played,” said Western coach Lance Rogers. “It took us much longer to put a ball down than normal.”

Asher kicked things into gear in the third game with a hand in a pair of early blocks that gave Western a 6-4 lead. But Grafton didn’t go away easily, even when Western took a five-point lead. The Clippers managed to close the gap to 22-19 when Harper knocked down one of those offspeed kills, The teams traded point from there as Western forced a fourth game.

In the fourth, the Warriors managed to tie the game three times down the stretch after surrendering an early 10-9 advantage, but Grafton pulled away late, winning 25-22.

“Aside from game two, we fought and battled hard every game,” Rogers said. “We got pretty much everything we wanted out of our kids in those three games. Game four could have gone either way down the stretch.”

Grafton’s junior middle Alyssa Hall gave Western problems all night, finishing with 16 kills and five blocks in the contest, while Kelley Anderson gave the Clippers a well-rounded performance with 10 kills, three blocks and six digs. Sarah Campbell triggered the offense with 33 assists.

Western got a typical strong performance from several members of its deep, talented senior class as Harper posted 13 kills and 15 digs, Elizabeth Via had 12 digs and Lacy finished with 12 kills. Several of Lacy’s kills came on defensive reversals at the net rather than out of the set offense. Megan Adams, another senior, finished with 11 assists.

Ali Miles, Amanda Gough, Brittney Wagner and Kristen Pack round out a senior class that has put Western on the state map i volleyball with a number of key firsts for the program.

Riley Martin had 16 assists while Asher finished with five kills and four blocks.

Comments

comments