Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Patrick Henry falls to Albemarle in volleyball regionals
varsity.roanoke.com
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For all of the ups and downs her Patrick Henry volleyball team experienced during a 16-8 season, coach Patti Sheedy liked her team's position Tuesday.
"We ended up winning the regular-season championship and that gives you the home-court advantage," said Sheedy, whose Patriots entertained Albemarle in the first round of the Northwest Region tournament.
"You can't ask for much more than that."
Unfortunately for Patrick Henry, it was also an elimination match, and it was Albemarle that was advancing following a 25-17, 25-21, 25-17 victory.
Patrick Henry had taken three games from Albemarle in a 2007 playoff match, "but I don't think we felt like an underdog coming in here," Albemarle coach Mark Ragland said.
"I felt we played well below our ability last year, very nervously. Most of my kids are back from last year and we played with a little more confidence.
"We also wanted to get rid of last year's memory."
Ragland cited junior setter Abby Hendrix for her improved decision-making. Hendrix had 36 assists, with seniors Kara Elder and Laura Gomez totaling 16 and 15 kills, respectively.
"I knew they would be coming after us after losing in three because any good team will do that," said Sheedy, who started a freshman and two sophomores.
A turning point occurred in the second game, when Patrick Henry trimmed a big deficit to 21-18, at which Ragland called a timeout.
"I told them just to try and keep up the enthusiasm," said Ragland, who is the winningest coach in Virginia, with 425 victories in 21 seasons. "The type of voice you play with really makes a difference in volleyball."
Sheedy has been coaching against Ragland for 10 years.
"Our young kids played like, well, young kids," Sheedy said. "We got a little nervous, a little tentative. In volleyball rally scoring, it's very quick to change from one direction to another. You've got to have a short memory when you play rally scoring."
In rally scoring, a team doesn't have to serve to score.
Patrick Henry got 15 kills from senior Jenny Young, 10 from sophomore Liz Brailsford and eight from senior Laura Jessee.
"Our confidence level was a lot lower than it usually is," Jessee said. "There are some games when we play really hard and play really well together, and then there are other nights when all of the pieces of the puzzle aren't there."
The teams had not played previously this season, but Albemarle (22-3) had beaten two other Western Valley District teams, Franklin County and E.C. Glass, not that PH hadn't played a quality slate.
"Probably our entire non-district schedule made it to regionals," Sheedy said. "We don't play an easy schedule because we want to be ready for games like this.
"We had three core players with experience and the rest was going to be all new players, so we were going to take some lumps. A lot of people had their doubts about us, but I think we played very well."
