Lady Dragons win third straight in District play against Mustangs

By Jeremy Knight, Special Correspondent
Published: October 2, 2008

On Thursday September 25, the William Monroe Dragons varsity volleyball team hosted the Monticello Mustangs in a Jefferson District match up.  Monroe was coming off big wins over Orange and Fluvanna.
In their match against Orange the Lady Dragons were led by Katelyn Roach who had 15 service points and one kill. Also Kate Puryear added six service points, seven kills, and one block.
Melanie Lamb and Alex Cave chipped in for the Dragon win as Lamb had 20 assists, eight service points and three kills and Cave had seven kills, along with three service points.
The Dragons then got their second district win as they defeated Fluvanna at home on Tuesday September 23rd. In that victory Monroe was led by Emily Inzana who had nine kills, and six service points.
Cave helped with 12 kills, 10 service points, three of which were aces. Lauren Thompson had 9 kills and Lamb had 34 assists as the Dragons won 3-2 in games.
Monroe came into the Monticello match looking to continue their district success against the Mustangs, a very young team. Monticello has no juniors or seniors on their team.
The first game started out great for the Dragons as they jumped quickly to a 7-2 lead. However, Monticello would fight back to bring the score close again at 8-6.
Midway through the first game, Monroe would look as if they were going to cruise to an easy win. But the young Mustangs would go on a 12-5 scoring run to tie the game at 20, off Dragon mistakes.
From there on it would be all Monroe, as they would take the first game 25-21. Leading the Dragons in the first game was Puryear with three service points and three kills. Also Cave added three service points of her own, along with two kills.
Game 2 started out much like the first. The score went back and forth with neither team able to pull away from the other.
Monticello began to show its youth and inexperience as their mistakes kept the score close. Greene seemed to have some trouble with its coverage, as a lot of Mustang shots were finding empty spaces.
Cave came up with big plays when the Dragons needed it and kept them in the lead. Monroe would finally pull away enough at the end to take the second game, 25-22.
Helping the Dragons to this win was Cave with two service points and three kills. Inzana finished with three service points and one kill.
Monroe came into the third game with all the momentum and was looking to put away the Mustangs.
And that is just what they did.
Monticello’s youth really showed, as they seemed to run out of gas and let Monroe pull away. Puryear’s serves seemed to be non-returnable as she helped the Dragons to a 25-14 Game 3 win and a sweep of the Mustangs.
In Game 3, Puryear had 6 service points and a kill. Samantha Lawson came in and got the final three points, all with service points. Throughout all three games Lamb tallied 25 assists as Monroe made quick work of the Mustangs.
Asked about the Mustangs game, Coach Dee Hoffman said the following about the Lady Dragons: “They played consistently well throughout the night.” Hoffman added: “Monticello is a competitive team that’s well coached.”
With the win the Dragons improve to 9-3 overall and 4-1 in the district.
“The season is going extremely well,” said Hoffman. “We are consistently getting better as the season progresses and that’s what we want to do with every match.” 
At press time, they were preparing for a home game on Tuesday September 30 against the Louisa Lions.