Western Albemarle seems to be picking up a head of steam, and that might just be bad news for anyone else on the Warriors’ schedule.
After winning a confidence-building thriller with Jefferson District rival Fluvanna County on Thursday, Western won Saturday’s Albemarle Invitational. But to pull that off, the Warriors had to survive a 3-2 semifinal with Franklin County and a rematch of their season opener with archrival Albemarle in the final.
The Warriors knocked off Franklin 15-9 in the decisive fifth game after dropping games three and four to the Eagles, a talented Group AAA squad.
Western then followed that with a hard-fought sweep of the Patriots (25-23, 25-22, 25-17) that looked a lot like the two teams’ battle in the season opener — three see-saw games where the Warriors eventually managed a short, decisive run to gain an advantage. Western’s seasoned roster seems to have been the decisive factor in its two battles with Albemarle, who has a number of inexperienced players filling key roles.
“There’s no doubt our experience shows,” said Western coach Lance Rogers. “We’ve got eight seniors and that’s huge. They’re not flustered by the pressure, and that’s a nice edge.”
Western (5-0, 2-0 Jefferson) swept Osbourn in the first round to advance to the semis. Sarah Harper led the Warriors with 28 kills and 27 digs over the three matches and Chastity Lacy put together a 19-kill, 9-block effort over that stretch. Ana Asher managed 12 kills in the tournament while setters Riley Martin and Megan Adams were nearly dead even with 40 and 38 assists respectively operating out of Western’s 6-2 offense.
Albemarle won a pair of 3-1 battles to move to the final, beating Battlefield and Liberty Christian Academy, twice rallying back after dropping the first game.
Abby Hendrix had an impressive 99 assists in the tournament to go with 30 service points and seven aces. Hannah Lawson had 41 kills and five blocks while also posting 15 service points.
Megan Napolitano was also impressive for the Patriots with 18 service points, seven aces and 33 kills over the three-match stretch, and Meg Carpenter came up with 34 digs and 19 service points.
Harper and Lacy made the all-tournament team for Western while Hendrix and Lawson earned those honors for Albemarle.
