With Western Albemarle up 24-14 in game three against Monticello, the lights went out in part of the gym. Not even a short blackout could slow down the Warriors though. After a short delay while the lights hummed back to life, Western stepped up and quickly closed out the 3-0 win in the Conference 29 quarterfinals.
It was the third meeting between the two Jefferson District foes and Western rolled 25-9, 25-20 and 25-15 in the sweep, but it was clear that despite the largely lopsided scores, the Warriors had to work for their opportunity to advance to conference semifinals on Wednesday.
“Monticello is a really good team, they’ve grown as well as us,” said Western’s Alema Atuaia. “It’s more of a hard-fought competition.”
Atuaia led that hard-fought effort at the net and at the service line with a team-high 12 kills and three aces on the night. She also led the Warriors in another statistical category with eight digs. The offense getting into a groove was particularly important for Western and that came largely from a cleaner defensive effort.
“We’ve been on and off all season but I feel like now we’re actually clicking as a team right now, everyone is just connecting with each other,” Atuaia. “I think that most of it’s defense, that really runs our offense.”
Courtney Berry and Olivia Nichols each posted nine kills as part of a balanced front line effort, with Cassidy Wilson throwing in five of her own. Andrea Vial kept the offense clicking with 34 assists at setter. Nichols also posted seven digs with Adriana Bland also coming up with seven.
Monticello’s season ended with the loss, but it capped a year where the Mustangs showed drastic improvement under first year coach Meg Carpenter.
“They’ve really seen it and it has affected each and every single game that they’ve played,” Carpenter said. “I feel like every game they’ve had milestones and achievements and that’s a credit to them. They’re determined, they come to practice and say ‘we got beat in this area what can we do to fix it?’’.”
The Mustangs’ put together a solid defensive night at the net with Moneka Lawson posting four blocks and Makysha Brock coming up with three blocks. Morgan Marshall and Amaya Gibson each had six digs and Jewell Pugh had eight assists. Haley Brown’s three kills led the way in hitting.
The No. 2-seeded Warriors will face No. 3 Spotswood in the Conference 29 semifinals Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Fluvanna County. Fort Defiance and Turner Ashby will play in the other semifinal at 6.
