Correspondent Delaney White contributed to this story.
It was, quite simply, a strange moment. Albemarle was just a point away from closing out a region title and the Patriots just couldn’t contain themselves, racing on to the court too early in celebration of a region title the program hadn’t enjoyed in 13 years.
“I don’t think I’ve seen anything like that, where a sanction for a misconduct changed the course of a game,” said Albemarle volleyball coach Lance Rogers. “It was the right call, we were over exuberant, we ran onto the court too early. It gave us an opportunity to show our true grit.”
Mountain View was awarded a point for the Patriots’ early celebration and briefly took advantage of the new life, extending the match by winning that game three 26-24. But Albemarle regrouped, reset and then won a tight game four to close out a 3-1 victory for a Region 5D title and a state tournament berth. The Patriots last won a region title in 2008 during the program’s lone state championship run, a function of playing in a very challenging volleyball region.
“A lot of it was anger and I was so happy that everyone was able to push ourselves after a call we did not like,” said Albemarle senior Sophia Dawson of the match’s emotional roller coaster. “(We kept) our cool and finished.”
It helped that in game four in the wake of that penalty, Albemarle junior hitter Maya Winterhoff just exploded. Winterhoff unleashed a 16-kill barrage in game four as part of a 38-kill night and was just about perfect in that game four with just a single error. Winterhoff’s 38 kills ties for the sixth-best VHSL performance all-time and appears to be a new school and area-wide record. The Patriots just kept feeding their star hitter down the stretch and Mountain View couldn’t unearth an answer with Albemarle eventually winning 25-23.
“We just gave it everything we had, we knew Mountain View was going to be the best team we played all season,” Winterhoff said. “(But) we’ve been working for this all season, and to be able to get it done feels awesome.”
Winterhoff added 11 digs to her wild 38-kill performance, boosting a tough defensive performance by Albemarle that included 20 digs by Dawson (who also had 10 kills) and 19 by Franceszca Camaya. In fact, Dawson and Camaya each had 10 digs in the decisive game four, an impressive feat in its own right alongside Winterhoff’s assault during that set.
The Patriots started off with a relatively comfortable 25-18 win in game one, then cruised to a 25-14 win in game two. Mountain View came to life in that game four ahead of the unsportsmanlike call on the Patriots and then took advantage of that sliver of hope provided by the penalty.
But Keira Roach remained her steady self at setter, dishing out 15 assists in game four, with Camaya chipping in another three assists in that frame. Roach finished with 46 assists on the night.
The win was Rogers’ first region championship as a head coach. While at Western, he’d advanced to the state tournament with runner-up finishes in the region tournament.
“I’ve always come in second and gone to the state tournament that way,” Rogers said. “The girls have been talking about it for a long time and it just shows you what determination those girls have.”
The Patriots will travel to the Region 5C champion Freedom Tuesday, April 20 for the Class 5 state semifinals.
