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Steady Improvement: Western volleyball avenges early season loss to Fluvanna

Photo by Bart Isley

 

Western Albemarle’s back line standout Amber Parker is steady, cool and calm. 

 

“We can all count on her to be consistent — she doesn’t mess up under pressure, in fact I’d say she plays better under pressure,” said Western’s Sarah Rhea.

 

The Warriors got that kind of stretch from Parker in game two Thursday night right when they needed it. Parker closed out the game with three straight aces, setting the stage for three straight wins over Fluvanna to wrap up a 3-1 victory. 

 

“We’ve been working a lot on serving in practice and working the deep corners in preparation for this game so I was thinking of that the whole time,” Parker said. “I knew we had to win this game for postseason — it’s really important.”

 

The win showed a marked improvement for the Warriors, who stumbled to a 3-1 loss against Fluvanna in the teams’ first meeting. Western went to work after that loss, intent on making sure that they could take advantage of the chance to get in position for the Jefferson District’s top berth in the Region 3C tournament, which will likely require edging out Flucos in the standings. 

 

“(The improvement) has a lot to do with our practices, ever since we lost that match every practice has been about hustle and not letting balls hit the floor,” Rhea said. “That initial loss made us realize we weren’t playing to our full potential and it made us improve.”

 

That improvement yielded critical results thanks in part to Western not beating itself with mistakes and serving well. Parker finished with six aces on the night, Annabella Pandelli had four aces. The defense was locked in too, with Amber Parker notching 11 digs while Amelia Nichols and Pandelli each had 10 digs. That serving and defense was critical to the Warriors figuring out how to close out the match too. Closing out matches and putting opponents away has plagued the Warriors during the first month and a half of the season. Thursday night it wasn’t a problem as Western won the last two games 25-13 and 25-15 after squeaking out game two 25-19 and falling 25-23 in game one.

 

“Keeping our mental focus and turning on the kill switch has been something we’ve struggled with so I was proud of our performance,” said Western coach Julie Radlinksi. “We’ve come a long way in terms of controlling the ball on our side.”

 

The Warriors didn’t put up monster numbers at the net as errors plagued the Flucos, but Rhea led the way with eight kills and Caity Driver notched another seven. Pandelli had 17 assists to complete a big-time all-around game while Grace Boitnott had seven assists. Katie Carter was huge at the net with 4.5 blocks while Driver chipped in a pair of blocks. 

 

Fluvanna played scrappy volleyball in the first game, but couldn’t find a groove the rest of the match after rolling 3-1 in the first meeting. The Flucos’ youth clearly played a role on the road, but that’s a big reason to think that the Flucos could be better in two weeks than they are now with players like sophomore Sophia Denby and freshman setter Faith Shields playing key roles along with veterans like seniors Lindsey Ward and McKenzie Moore.

 

“We’re young, we’ve got two sophomores and a freshman starting on the court and they’re growing and improving,” said Fluvanna coach Christi Harlowe-Garrett. “Western played fantastic, they played clean, they hustled, their defense was good — it was their night. We’ve just got to keep learning from each opportunity to play.”

 

Western travels to take on Charlottesville Monday while Fluvanna faces Albemarle in a critical game Tuesday night. A win over the Patriots would vault the Flucos back into sole possession of the automatic Region 3C bid.

 

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