Two undefeated teams came into Madison County, albeit early in the volleyball season. William Monroe looked ready to make it a knock down drag out duel half way through the first set, but it would be far from that. Thanks to a night of great passing from setter Bailey Colvin, hitters Sheridan Santinga and Cassity Lacy went off, leading the Mountaineers to a 3-0 sweep of their Bull Run District rival, 25-,16, 25-17, 25-15.
“We didn’t know what to expect because going to the first serve they were undefeated,” said Madison coach Carol Nowakoski. “We were concerned and they have a good middle, but we got off to a good start and that was crucial, we don’t always do that.”
After building an early lead, the Mountaineers got their only true push back from the Dragons in the first game. A 7-2 lead evaporated as Monroe took a 13-12 advantage, but that was the latest lead that the Dragons would take in any of the three sets as Madison never trailed midway through either sets and closed the latter two handedly.
“We totally didn’t show up tonight,” said Monroe coach Ken Lawson. “Sometimes on part or another of your game is bad. Tonight there wasn’t just one thing. The last two matches we had four service errors, tonight we had that each set. We didn’t pass well from the back row. Madison did a great job, they blocked the ball really well. So we just have to learn to overcome that, but really there wasn’t one thing, it was everything.”
After the Mountaineers won 23 of the last 16 points to take a 1-0 advantage, they opened up the second set with an 8-1 run. Monroe got to within four points midway through but the Mountaineers took the next four points to go up 15-7 and then closed out the set to make it 2-0 as Santinga and Lacy caught fire.
“We have an amazing team that’s played together for so long now and we all just love eachother,” Santinga said. “We have the chemisty and we go out and have fun. We practice hard when we’re not playing and so we’re just getting more in sync with eachother. Passing was the key tonight. Bailey Colvin was just setting everything perfect.”
The third set was much the same with Madison building a 13-5 lead and then keeping Monroe at bay with at least a 5-point advantage until wrapping up the sweep on a 6-1 run.
“These girls, they’re amazing,” Nowakoski said. “Cassity was killing it. Sheridan was killing it. They were really clicking with Bailey and it’s starting to really come together.”
For Madison, Santinga had 10 kills and Lacy added eight. Logan Coates and Sam Atwell had seven and six respective kills. Colvin had 29 assists and was 100% from the service line on 16 attempts with a pair of aces. Sam Breeden was also 100% percent from the line with 15 serves and two aces. Jeana Kelliher led the way with 20 digs, while Coates and Colvin each had 18.
For Monroe, Olivia Shifflett had four kills. Morgan Lawson had 11 digs.
Monroe (5-1) will travel to Rappahannock next Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Madison (6-0) travels to Warren County on Thursday also at 7 p.m.
