This time, it came down to the wire.
After Fluvanna County and Western Albemarle traded regular season sweeps with the road team winning each matchup, the Flucos got the 3-2 win Tuesday night in a match that, going into it, put each teams’ season on the line, with the winner going to the region tournament while the loser’s season was potentially over.
“Thrilled does not begin to describe it,” said Fluvanna County coach Christi Harlowe-Garrett. “We do (game situations) like that in practice all the time but to see it come to fruition on the court, I couldn’t be more proud.”
While the Flucos fought and got the win, Western didn’t discover until afterwards that due to a Turner Ashby loss, the Warriors advanced as well as the No. 8 seed in the tournament, they’ll face Fort Defiance. Fluvanna goes in as the No. 6-seeded squad and they’ll face Liberty-Bedford. Monticello earned the Jefferson District’s automatic bid and is the tournament’s No. 2 seed.
The Flucos got there in large part because they refused to roll over, winning game two 25-13 after dropping game one 25-21. They then bounced again after losing game three 25-21 to win game four 25-20, setting the stage for the decisive game five.
“Western played amazing, they hit the ball well, they served well, they played a great match,” Harlowe-Garrett said.
Even in that game, Fluvanna had to rally and overcame a 10-6 deficit to tie the game at 12-12. They then scrapped and clawed and took advantage of a couple of Western errors to pull off the win. Fluvanna got a huge lift from its back line, specifically Candice Shaheen who finished with 28 digs on the night.
“She passed so well and she lifts everyone around her, it made everyone pass better,” Harlowe-Garrett said. “Western did not make it easy at all so (we) earned it.”
Meanwhile the front line stepped up in a big way too, with Christina Walker notching 16 kills and five blocks while Abby Sherman had 10 kills.
The Warriors battled all night too, with Lilly Davis notching 14 kills and 14 digs while Cassidy Wilson had 13 kills and Abby Johnson had 10 kills. Caity Driver and Johnson each had four blocks. Amber Parker had 23 digs and Abby Boitnott notched 23 assists.
“That was a great volleyball match, I thought both teams played with great effort,” said Western coach Ron Pack. “They were the better team tonight, they deserved the match.”
The Flucos will travel to Liberty Bedford Thursday while the Warriors head over Afton Mountain to play Fort Defiance the same night.
