It’s been engrained in her mind and it happened well over a year ago. Ana Asher is still bothered about having lost a set in a four game win over Louisa County in 2009 during the regular season.
“I’ve made it a personal goal of mine to beat them 3-0,” Asher said.
Having swept the Lions twice already, Asher, the lone senior on her team, led Western Albemarle to a third 3-0 win on Tuesday night as she and the Warriors advanced to the Jefferson District championship game for the ninth straight time, 25-14, 25-17, 25-19.
“Today my teammates were really playing well,” Asher said. “Riley Martin was setting really well and (libero) Marin Crowder is a great digger, so it all came together just right.”
In both of the first two games Western came out early and grabbed the lead by at least eight points before going on to cruise behind the offense finished by Asher, Allie Nicholson and Katie Rossberg.
In game three Louisa put up its best fight of the night. The Lions trailed by six points early in the match but trimmed Western’s lead to one point at 15-14 on a 7-2 run. However, the Warriors did not flinch and call a timeout. They instead played through to the tune of a 9-3 run of their own before closing out the match.
“We feel like we’re right where we want to be in the postseason,” said Western coach Lance Rogers who was named this year’s Jefferson District coach of the year. “We’re playing real smooth and the things that we need to work on aren’t that big of a deal. We’ve just got a lot of different options right now, a lot of players out there doing well in the hitting rotation. We’re feeling really good.”
In addition to earning JD player of the year honors after the match, Asher led Western with 10 kills and four aces. Rossberg was close behind with nine kills and Nicholson contributed seven. Riley Martin netted 25 assists and Marin Crowder had a game high 15 digs.
For Louisa, Emily Walton had eight of her team’s 27 kills. The Lions had seven aces in the match with four coming from libero Logan Torgerson.
“In my five years here, we’ve made it the semifinals three straight years now and each time we’ve had to play Western,” said Lions coach Dave Boardway. “Its our destiny to see them every time in the semifinals, but this the best we’ve been in a long time. We’re still a young team trying to get better.”
Louisa will face Fluvanna County in the JD consolation game with the winner earning the third and final Region II bid.
“There’s a regional bid at stake so I told the team that they needed to put this game behind them,” Boardway said. “They need to come to school tomorrow, get a good practice, get some good food and sleep and be ready for Thursday.”
The Lions fell to the Flucos in four games on the road in their first meeting and played in a hard fought five-game loss in their last meeting that concluded its regular season.
Louisa and Fluvanna will play on Thursday at Charlottesville at 6 p.m.
Western will face Monticello in the JD championship. It is the first time the Warriors have not faced the Fluvanna County in the final since 2005 when they topped William Monroe. 2005 was also the last time that Western fell to a JD opponent.
