Whatever was missing Tuesday against Waynesboro for Western Albemarle’s volleyball team was there Thursday night in the Conference 29 title clash against Turner Ashby.
In fact, it was there before the Warriors got on the bus.
“I actually felt very confident today because when I went to the school the kids were eating outside before we got on the bus and there just seemed to be a confident and a lot of energy today,” said Western coach Ron Pack. “They seemed like they really wanted to play tonight.”
With that renewed focus, Western bounced back from a game one loss to beat the Knights 3-1 and claim the program’s first Conference 29 title after they fell to Spotswood in the title game in 2014.
“We definitely wanted to come back and redeem ourselves from last year,” said Western setter Erin Farina who finished with 52 assists. “We kind of choked in the final last year, we were just really tired for that game. We really wanted this one.”
Kelsey Grove powered the Western offense all night, putting together a school record 24 kills in the match, with a bunch of them coming off the backline after Pack told Farina to simply feed Grove wherever she was.
“I told Erin ‘go to her, they are not stopping her, let’s just feed her the ball over and over again until they make some kind of adjustment’,” Pack said.
Grove was in a groove from the start and added 13 digs to her effort. The Warriors’ versatile hitter’s adaptability makes her an extremely valuable weapon, especially against squads like Turner Ashby that serve well enough to consistently take Western out of system.
“Whenever we don’t have perfect passes, it’s so nice to have someone where I can put something up that’s not perfect and she’s going to at least keep it in play,” Farina said.
While Turner Ashby was clearly paying attention and trying to block the Warriors’ lead hitter, they also had to contend with the return of Sienna Kellum to the lineup as the previously injured standout unleashed 15 kills in just her second full game back. Courtney Berry added 11 kills and three blocks of her own too and Olivia Nichols had nine kills plus a game-ending block that gave Western a 2-1 lead after the third game. That diverse attack overpowered the Knights, who couldn’t find an answer for Grove’s attacks from all over the court.
“I think we all just had a lot of momentum, we had a lot of excitement about this game ,” Grove said. “We really wanted to get on the banner and we were really motivated to do that. I think we just gelled together and fed off each other.”
The Warriors were also all over the floor defensively with Hannah Miles’ 17 digs leading the way while Farina had 11 digs, Elissa Simpson had 10 digs and Adriana Bland had seven digs. That’s four total players in double digit digs, a true complete team effort in the win.
Western advances to the Region 3A West tournament where they’ll host in the first round Monday.
Monticello volleyball falls in Conference 29 third-place game
Monticello volleyball’s season ended Thursday night as the Mustangs fell 3-1 to Spotswood in the third-place game of the Conference 29 tournament. Spotswood advances to the region tournament with the win.
Zimako Chuks notched a strong all-around night with 11 kills and 12 digs for the Mustangs while Summer Larese finished with nine kills and nine digs.
Allie Perez finished with 35 assists and 10 digs in the loss for Monticello (11-10) while Hannah Green had seven kills and Amya Gibson came up with nine digs.
