Warriors Knock Off Flucos
Warriors knock off Flucos
Junior hitter Laura Bergin has connected much more cleanly on many other balls for Western Albemarle that ended with a point for the Warriors. In fact, she connected on 11 better ones Thursday night.
But on what became the final point for Western in a 3-0 (25-018, 25-18, 25-21) sweep of Fluvanna, Bergin got just enough. Just enough.
“It literally caught one knuckle and went over,” Bergin said. “They’re saying it was a kill but that was the lamest kill I’ve seen in my entire life.”
Assistant coach Ron Pack, who keeps statistics for Western, didn’t award a kill on the play, citing the rulebook’s take that the play didn’t qualify as an attack. But it mattered little as Bergin, Katie Rossberg and Maggie Kooken combined for 35 kills in an incredible balanced performance by the Warriors’ front line that made life tough on the Flucos.
Rossberg and Kooken each had 12 kills, while Bergin had 11. Contending with the Warriors’ multiple hitters is no easy task for any squad.
“They did come out pretty strong, better than we did against Powhatan we struggled a little bit against Powhatan,” said Western coach Jena McFaddin. “We ran our gameplan great.”
Not that Western had much more success controlling Fluvanna County’s Hannah Miller who finished with 11 kills despite the fact that most of the offense flows through the junior standout.
“We try and contain her, we don’t try and stop her, we just try and keep her kills down,” McFaddin said. “Because you can’t stop her, but I think our middles go up pretty well against her.”
Emily Haden gave Fluvanna another option with five total kills, but the Flucos were out of sync for long, critical stretches against the Warriors and Western capitalized. In the second game, one of those stretches came with the Warriors holding a three-point advantage at 19-16. The Warriors took control with a 4-0 run that all but knocked Fluvanna out.
“We lost our focus a little bit,” said Fluvanna coach Christi Harlowe-Garrett. “More than they did. It hurt us at key points.”
A similar run in the third game allowed Western to battle back from a 3-point deficit at 17-14 to take a 21-17 lead, with a Marin Crowder ace and a series of Fluvanna errors doing the bulk of the damage. A few points later, the tip of Bergin’s finger finished off the match. And kept Western alone at the top of the district standings with Powhatan at a single loss in second and Fluvanna in third with a pair of defeats.
Riley Martin piled up 35 assists in the match while Crowder had three aces and 20 digs. Kooken managed a dozen digs to go with her 12 kills.
Sammi Toy had 23 assists at setter for the Flucos while Miller had 11 digs in the victory.
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A Kill for Bergin
SECTION 1—ATTACKS
Article 1. An attack attempt (ATT) is recorded any time a player attempts
to attack (hit strategically) the ball into the opponent’s court. The
ball may be spiked, set, tipped or hit as an overhead contact. There are
three possible outcomes of an attack attempt:
(1) There can be a kill.
(2) There can be an attack error.
(3) The ball can stay in play. This is referred to as a “0 attack” (zero
attack).
Philosophy. Any ball that is played over the net in an attempt to score
a point should be considered an attack. Any ball played over the net simply
to keep the ball alive should not be considered an attack attempt.
The exceptions to an attack attempt are:
(1) An attempt is not charged on a ball played over the net on serve
reception that is kept in play by the opposing team. This is called
an overpass.
(2) An attempt is not charged on a free ball played over the net
when, in the opinion of the statistician, the free ball is passed only
to keep the ball in play.
(3) An attempt is not charged to a player if, in the opinion of the statistician,
the set is bad and the player plays the ball over the net
only to keep the ball in play.
(4) An attempt is not charged to a player if, in the opinion of the statistician,
the player passes the ball over the net only to keep it in
play.
However, if in any of the four above-mentioned instances the action
results directly in a point for the team playing the ball, a kill (see Article
2), and therefore an attack attempt, must be awarded.
Article 2. A kill (K) is awarded to a player any time an attack is unreturnable
by the opposition and is a direct cause of the opponent not
returning the ball, or any time the attack leads directly to a blocking error
by the opposition. A kill leads directly to a point. When a player is
awarded a kill, the player also is awarded an attack attempt.
Congratulations Warriors!
Western has a superb volleyball program, comprising talented athletes and top-notch coaches. You all are a lot of fun to watch.
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