07 WESTERN TENNIS
KEEPS IT IN THE FAMILY
scr覺mmageplay THE CENTRAL VIRGINIA SPORTS AUTHORITY
Reaching Back How a handful of the best pitchers in Central Virginia mow down batters. PAGE 07
VOL 7. ISSUE 15 :: MAY 18, 2016
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07 WesteRn tennis
Keeps in tHe Family
scrımmageplay the central virginia sports authority
x’s and o’s
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THE RIGHT STUFF Profiling five of the area’s best pitchers
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TWO SETS Western girls tennis’ sister tandems
19
GAME TIME Western boys lacrosse tops Albemarle
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SHOT AND A SAVE Appreciation for goalies across the sports
Reaching Back VOL 7 . ISSUE 15 :: MAY 18, 2016
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BUILDING THE BACK END STAB girls lacrosse relies on defense
vol 7. issue 15 :: May 18, 2016
How a handful of the best pitchers in Central Virginia mow down batters. page 07
S TA F F Bart Isley, Creative Director Bob Isley, Infrastructure Director Ryan Yemen, Creative Editor O N T H E COV E R Fork Union’s Jacob Grabeel M I S S I O N S TAT E M E N T Local sports are the lifeblood of every community in America, and we’re here to reach beyond the basics and give compelling accounts about Central Virginia athletes to our readers. CO N TAC T U S [ e ] info@scrimmageplay.com [ p ] 434-249-2032
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PREGAME
Dodging trouble Western Albemarle’s Carter Elliot loks to avoid the Albemarle defense. The Warriors and Patriots split their two regular season meetings with Albemarle taking the first back at the end of March and Western taking the regular season finale for both on May 14. Elliot had four goals in the win to lead the way for the Warriors on senior night. To read more about the game flip over to page 19. ✖ (Photo by David Balaban)
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First Quarter
Building the back end
STAB girls lacrosse remains stable with strong defense By Bart Isley
I
Maddie Hunter, above, is one of a hand full of seniors playing a key role on defense. (Ashley Thornton)
{ CONSISTENCY } STAB’s winning percentage the last four years under coach Mary Blake. 2016
.800
2015
.875
2014
.791
2013
.750
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n girls lacrosse, finding offensive firepower is the easy part of the equation. Bringing together a defense that functions as a unit with top-notch communication and a mix of aggressive and conservative on-ball defenders where the whistle can come quickly, is a much different animal.
It’s how championship teams are made. It’s how teams go from good to great, like St. Anne’s-Belfield’s girls lacrosse team did this spring, going from a squad that lost to rival Collegiate early in the year to an LIS-title winning squad that earned the No. 3 spot in the VISAA Division I tournament behind a pair of top-five nationally ranked squads in St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes and Bishop Ireton. “I will say this until I finish coaching, I think your defense jumpstarts your offense, I feel very strongly about that,” said STAB coach Mary Blake. “They get a big save and then it just sort of brings the morale up and everyone is like, we’ve got to do something with this.” That started with the defense’s cornerstone, Virginia Tech-bound Mailynn Steppe. The Saints graduated a number of key players like Emily Carden, but they brought back Steppe, a two-sport star at STAB whose communication skills are well-established in both sports. She’s a master at keeping her teammates accountable and knowing how to get everyone in place. Not to mention she’s extremely good at guarding on the ball and shutting off passing lanes. Steppe is one of the most complete defenders to come through Central Virginia in awhile. “She’s a great communicator, she’s vocal, she keeps them engaged, it’s huge,” Blake said. Building around Steppe, there’s also senior Neely Craig who has had several critical clears, including one in the LIS final against Collegiate. In addition, there’s Brittany Schoeb in the cage. Schoeb is an excellent example of a project coming full circle as she’s gone from an inexperienced keeper to a reliable backstop
capable of shutting down opposing offenses. She stopped more than 60 percent of Collegiate’s first-half shots in the last regularseason meeting of the year, giving STAB a chance to build an insurmountable lead on the other end. The Saints also have the luxury of several rock solid defenders in the midfield in Annie Cory, Maddie Hunter and Caroline DiGiacomo. That group makes it tough for the opposition to even get to Schoeb and by the time they do, they don’t have much of an angle. With that defense clicking, crashing hard and coming up with stops, the STAB offense has flourished, expanding beyond DiGiacomo and Cory to become an unpredictable, hardto-scout unit. They’re in a different mold than the state final four group that included Audrey Schreck and Julia Haney in 2015, but they’ve been nearly as effective, with a different player seemingly stepping up in every outing. Whether it’s McKenzie Maurer (four goals against Collegiate in the LIS final) or Elizabeth Carden (four against Collegiate in the regular season finale), someone is coming up big. But like Blake said, it starts with defense. The Saints built a foundation from the backline forward, and they reaped the rewards with an incredible stretch run that put them in the state final four for a second straight season. And perhaps one of the most encouraging signs of how far this defense has come is that with Steppe missing the state quarterfinals against Collegiate, the unit stepped up and delivered an 12-11 victory. ✖
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College Update
We’ve gone digital But you can have it in print too!
Albemarle’s Carson goes off for ODU By Bart Isley Old Dominion University’s women’s lacrosse team set a program record for victories this year, won the program’s second Atlantic Sun championship and earned the Monarchs’ first NCAA tournament berth. There, at the center of an historic season, was Albemarle High alum Connor Carson, a junior midfielder for Old Dominion who has essentially repeated the success she enjoyed at Albemarle in helping lift the program to new heights at ODU. Carson joined an ODU team in 2014 that posted a losing season for the fifthstraight campaign. But in 2015, the Monarchs turned the corner with a 13-5 record before an early exit in the Atlantic Sun tournament. This year though, things took another step forward as ODU won the program-record 16 games and found that elusive NCAA berth. Carson set a program record for draw controls during the Monarchs’ incredible 2016 campaign, hauling in 70 draws, seven more than the previous record and a sizeable leap from 2015 when she pulled in the second most in ODU history with 58 controls.
Carson also scored 25 goals (third on the the team) and forced 23 turnovers. The Albemarle graduate earned first team All-Atlantic Sun honors for those efforts, the second straight season that Carson has made all-conference. ODU also boasted the Atlantic Sun player of the year in Ashmore Standing and another first teamer in Missy Koscinski. Carson is the lone returner in that trio in 2017 and it’s likely her rule will evolve and grow next season as the Monarchs look to capitalize on this season’s success. Carson was a dominant force for three years at Albemarle ranging from 2011-2013. She piled up 267 goals and 335 draw controls, both program records. As a senior she poured in 93 goals for the Patriots. She was the Scrimmage Play player of the year as a junior and a first team honoree as a senior, part of an incredibly decorated prep career. Now she’s posting similarly groundbreaking numbers for the Monarchs. It seems wherever Carson goes, good things follow. ✖
BELOW » Albemarle graduate Connor Carson (2013) has helped ODU earn an NCAA tournament berth. (EMU Sports Information)
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T H G S I TU R E F H
STORY BY RYAN YEMEN PHOTOS BY GRACE WILBANKS, BRIAN MELLOTT & ASHLEY THORNTON
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E v e ry t h i n g s ta rt s with the fastball before it branches out. In the biology of baseball, it is the carbon upon which the game is built. From there, a pitcher is born. The fastball is the spine of the art, and one that allows a hurler to round out their game. Then comes a curveball. Then a changeup, a fake fastball. Those three pitches become the canvas for as the artist they look to keep batters from success. There are many different types of starting pitchers at the high school level. Some programs have college-bound studs that throw fire. Others have crafty, efficient aces. Some play to contact and the law of averages. Building an ace, a staff general can be done so many different ways. Central Virginia is fortunate that there was a little bit of everything. From the big public schools to the small, the established private powers to the up and coming, here’s a look at five pitchers that all had their own styles and unique approach. Just like carbon gives life seemingly infinite ways to thrive, in baseball at the crux of the sport, the pitcher, has options and it’s those choices that make the game what it is — a never ending charade of ‘what’s next?.’
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BRADLEY HANNER ORANGE COUNTY
“
My strikeout pitch is the slower curveball I throw. The two curveballs are different speeds and the slower one is a great strikeout pitch.”
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When you’ve got two different curveballs that deceptively look like your fastball, you’re in good shape. When you’re Bradley Hanner and your fastball comes across the plate between 85-89 miles per hour, that changes the game for a batter. “I love throwing my fastball,” Hanner said. “I just like putting it out there as much as a I can.” Hanner has electric stuff. His four seam fastball rises up in the strike zone. He has the ability to pump fastball after fastball for strikes and hitters have their hands full trying to see it, catch up to it, and square it up. But with the ability to throw two different nasty hooks, the Orange County junior gets to toy with a batter’s timing, and pick up knee-buckling strikes looking. His delivery on those pitches looks so similar that if a batter guesses wrong expecting a fastball and sees what looks like one that’s out of the zone, it might just bend in for a strike and at a completely different velocity. “My strikeout pitch is the slower curveball I throw,” Hanner said. “The two curveballs are different speeds and the slower one is a great strikeout pitch.” Hanner has made nine starts for the Hornets this year. In six of those he’s gone seven innings. The other three? Six innings. With just seven earned runs over 60 innings, Hanner’s earned run average is an impressive 0.82. He’s averaging 11 strikeouts per outing and his 19K no-hitter against Fluvanna County back in April stands out as one of the most impressive performances of the season. The stats don’t lie when it comes to Hanner, and as such, when he’s on the mound, Orange is always in a position to win, regardless of its opponent. This year, as much as Hanner wants to lean on his fastball, he and the Hornets coaching staff have made a concerted effort to try and keep hitters guessing a bit more instead of constantly trying to square up a pitch thrown as hard as possible. “This season I’ve really come along mixing pitches up some and changing my speeds, just throwing a lot of fastballs, curveballs and changeups,” Hanner said. In addition to his ERA and strikeout ability, what truly stands out for Orange’s ace is that he has just 28 hits and 24 walks in nine games. Over a seven-inning game that means that Hanner averages less than a baserunner per inning. His four-hit, seven-strikeout performance against Albemarle led the Hornets to a 4-2 win in the Conference 16 quarterfinals. So just like that, the Hornets sit one win away from qualifying for the Region 5A North tournament. If Orange can give Hanner the starts, he’ll keep giving them great chances to win. ✖
See a photograph you like? Defensive stand Warriors goalie has more than one trick | By Ryan Yemen
At Scrimmage Play we pride ourselves on offering the best possible graphics Two years ago the Western Albemarle boys to Shin, who doubles as a Junior National Judo soccer team get was fueled its underclassmen medalist, we can our byhands on, in both our but has developed into one of the with sophomores and freshman bearing the area’s most versatile goalkeepers. magazine as well as at our website at brunt of the work load. The netminder has shown he’s capable of Now two years later, forwards Aaron Myers making big saves, particularly in the team’s www.scrimmageplay.com and Alex Nolet, as well as senior defender two ties. In the first game of the season, Tom Rogers are all in their senior seasons and looking to earn a Region II bid, something that Orange County snatched away from them in the Jefferson District semifinals last season. After the first month of play, the Warriors seem to have the defensive side of the equation figured out and junior goalkeeper Kai Shin is a big part of that. Before Western went on its spring break, none of its four opponents were able to score more than once, a testament to the team’s play in the middle of the field, but also a nod
Shin endured wave after wave of Albemarle attack, but stood tall and showed no rust in the 1-1- tie. But while Shin’s on the field because he can make stops, his strong leg has also been of great use as he’s able to easily clear the zone but also spark fast breaks all by himself. The Warriors averaged a little over two goals per contest before the break, but if that average starts to increase, don’t be surprised if it’s because of Shin’s ability to contribute to the transition game. ✖
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Western Albemarle’s Kai Shin hauls in a shot during his team’s 1-1 tie with Albemarle that kicked off the soccer season for both squads. (Frank Crocker)
John Reynolds Louisa COUNTY
“
My fastball started moving and it had not moved like that in a while. I rely on it so much to get ground balls, strikeouts.”
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Every season Louisa County throws in its hat into the ring to find a way to mix things up in the Jefferson District. This year, there was nothing less predictable than a meeting between JD teams as the field was wide open and upsets were plentiful. John Reynolds came into the year as the Lions’ stalwart on the hill and endured some early season struggles. The Lions had the arms in the bullpen and with Tristan Snyder and Jacob Patterson coming on strong, Louisa was once again able to assert itself as a key player in the JD. But what do you do when you run into a rut? What do you do when you can’t command your most important pitch? Well, you work out of it and that’s what happened for Reynolds against the top team in the Jefferson back in mid-April. Working through adversity is the art of pitching. It’s easy to pitch when you’ve got your stuff. Losing it and then finding it again, that’s the struggle. In a six-inning effort in a 7-1 win over Monticello on the road, Reynolds was big and finding his fastball was the critical element. “My fastball started moving and it had moved not like that in a while,” Reynolds said. “I rely on it so much to get ground balls, strikeouts.” The Louisa junior leans on a two-seam fastball which moves differently through the zone. Reynolds throws in the low to mid 80s which is a great starting point for any high school pitcher. However, when his two-seam fastball is on point, it gets heavy. While four-seam fastballs tend to climb upwards on batters, a two-seamer sinks towards the end. It’s there when the pitch is being thrown properly that a pitcher gets inning ending ground outs and strikeouts. And for Reynolds, someone who was tagged to throw 40 of his team’s first 100 innings, that’s the name of the game — piling up the innings. In his 40 first innings, Reynolds surrendered just 11 earned runs. As a pitcher that’s looking for contact and for his defense to help play behind him, his 2.48 ERA was strong, especially considering some of the troubles he ran into before the first meeting with Monticello. With that said, he did himself a favor with just 12 walks and no wild pitches. His 36 strikeouts in eight games helped him get out of jams on his own too. Even with a bullpen that had solid depth, strength in numbers, Reynolds put together a pair of complete games. Headed into postseason play, with an offense that’s potent and bullpen that can handle a tough workload, Reynolds will be relied upon to put together more quality starts and pile up the innings in a sport that only allows seven per week. Having averaged five innings per start over the season, the Louisa junior seems more than capable of that. ✖
Cody Spencer William Monroe When it comes to season debuts, it’s tough to top the outing Cody Spencer put together. Against Orange County at home, Spencer put together a 12-strikeout perfect game in a 10-0 win in six innings. With 18 total batters faced, that works out to two strikeouts per inning. Spencer was a strong pitcher for the Dragons last year, but with multiple injuries to last year’s ace, Jacob Tomlin, the senior moved into the top role and it’s stayed that way since his first start against Orange. Of course, with Monroe coach Mike Maynard also being the American Legion Post 74 coach, there’s almost a perennial story of a Dragon finding something special during the summer season and coming back the following spring with something new, something extra. Working with then Monticello graduate and current Salisbury catching product Jack Decker, Spencer added his name to that list. The two had a bullpen session over the summer that resulted in the rising senior adding to his repertoire, a fourth pitch to complement his fastball, curveball and changeup. “I learned how to throw the slider in the bullpen, it was an accident,” Spencer said. “Then (Jack) my buddy, he saw something and said ‘Hey, do you know you’re throwing a slider sometimes?’ Then he worked with me on how to develop it, the arm slot. It’s about that and making a ‘J’ (with your fingers). On a curveball you’re coming over top of the ball, with a slider you’re making a ‘J,’ where you’re cutting across and dropping.” When you discover and develop a pitch like that it’s obviously tempting to go to the well as much as possible. However, Spencer’s success has been in teasing the pitch and allowing it to pair nicely with his fastball. That’s a big deal for Spencer, who will head to Bridgewater to continue working on his craft. “The slider is a pitch I don’t throw a lot, because I want to hide it and try and keep it as a strikeout pitch,” Spencer said. “It’s a sneaky pitch that looks like a fastball but moves away. So sometimes they’ll be thinking it’s a slider coming and you’re actually coming at them with a fastball and now they’re jammed.” With the Dragons rolling through the Bull Run District again, Spencer’s put together a fine senior season heading into the postseason. He’s won six of his seven starts. He’s given up just four earned runs for a solid 0.82 average over 44 innings. With 59 strikeouts over that span, he’s the kind of pitcher that can get himself out of jams and with just 12 walks on the season, he doesn’t put himself in many. Spencer’s and Monroe’s season might have been greatly aided by an accident in a bullpen session. But taking that accident and honing in on it is anything but. When luck meets hard work and talent, great things happen. ✖
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I want to hide it and try and keep it as a strikeout pitch. It’s a sneaky pitch that looks like a fastball but moves away.”
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Connor Gillispie Miller
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A lot of teams we’ve played haven’t been able to catch up. So I just keep throwing fastballs because I don’t want to throw to their bat speed.”
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It was Connor Gillispie’s complete game 11-strikeout performance in the VISAA Division 2 semifinals that put the Mavericks in the state title game for a second straight year in 2015. It was just a forgone conclusion that Gillispie would become the ace for a pitching staff looking to rebuild. Not a problem for Miller to say the least. In his last start of the 2015 season, Gillispie was clocked at 91 miles per hour and his fastball had and continues to have the same bite in 2016. If his 13-strikeout showing against Fishburne at the end of March wasn’t enough to show that, he followed it up with three more complete games in the next four attempts, all of them wins for the Mavericks over quality teams like Steward, Benedictine, Covenant and North Cross. Gillispie has no qualms with a steady diet of heat. “This year I’ve definitely been trying to blow the fastball by everybody,” Gillispie said. Now that diet does have some variety to it. Gillispie works in his four-seam fastball with his two-seamer and likes to move around the zone. But he throws hard and forces a batter to play his game. Of course, with a fiery set of fastballs you’d guess that Gillispie would incorporate some off speed stuff. He does, but less so than normal. That’s what happens when everyone is chasing and the heat is better than the previous season when it was already great. “This year it’s been tough with the changeup because my velocity is up on the fastballs,” Gillispie said. “So a lot of teams we’ve played haven’t been able to catch up. So I just keep throwing fastballs because I don’t want to throw to their bat speed.” What a wonderful problem to have. Of course, you have to find diversity somewhere even when you’re cruising through games, and Gillispie’s addition of a slider has allowed him to play with batters. “I wanted to get a fourth pitch before I headed to VCU next year,” Gillispie said. “It’s come along and I’ve been able to use it a good amount this year and it’s been effective. It’s a just a faster curveball but the break isn’t as big. You just don’t see it as a batter. Sometimes you can see the bend in a curveball coming out of someone’s hand. A slider gets released as a fastball and just has that little extra cut it.” With his final start of the year slated against Greenbrier Christian in the VISAA Division 2 semifinals, Gillispie will be in position to help Miller earn a potential third straight showing in the championship game. He’s spent all season keeping the sharp stuff at the top of its game. His stuff will be on full display in primetime in the playoffs. The last time Gillispie was in that spot, well, just ask Atlantic Shores how it looked. ✖
Jacob Grabeel Fork Union He’s a fielder’s and a spectator’s dream. Anyone that has a problem with pace in the sport of baseball only has to watch Fork Union’s Jacob Grabeel in action. The Blue Devils junior just finished his third season pitching for the program and his latest work was exceptional. Developing a changeup is probably the most difficult part of making your fastball stronger. After all, timing is everything when it comes to figuring out a pitcher. Grabeel’s fastball is his go-to pitch. He relies on his four-seamer, but also throws a two-seamer from time-to-time depending on the batter. His circle change (called a circle because the ball is palmed and the thumb and index fingers touch) is something that’s been a nice way to keep pumping in strikes, but gives batters an added timing element to solve. “A circle changeup rotates like a four seam fastball and moves away,” Grabeel said. “I hold it like my four seam. I change the position a little bit and so after a bunch of fastballs you’ll throw one and it’ll drop out of the zone. It bottoms out and hitters either go over top of it and miss or just get the top and it pops right up. It’s an off-balance pitch.” Getting the fastball-curveball combination down is the key development for pitchers early on, and adding the changeup is usually something that comes later. For Grabeel, whose fastball clocks in the 80 miles per hour range, it’s a pitch that takes off some velocity, but one that takes countless hours to perfect. “It takes a lot of work, you do a lot of long tossing with it first and work on getting the grip right, the rotation right,” Grabeel said. “You can’t squeeze it too tight and the finger position is key.” When you put all the pieces together, four pitches that you can throw for strikes and two of them that are off speed, you get the kind of efficiency that Grabeel had this season. The FUMA ace had six complete games in 12 appearances, with eight starts and four relief outings. In his first 50 innings, he finished with a 0.98 ERA with a miniscule five walks and a healthy 38 strikeouts. And to get those numbers he threw 72 percent of his pitches for a strike and again, in those same 50 innings, averaged three pitchers per batter faced. Grabeel pitched to contact a lot of times, worked fast and kept runners off base allowing him to go deep into games with low pitch counts. He threw 80 pitches or more just three times this year, which made FUMA games lightning fast. As he enters his senior season next year, he’s become the bonafide pitching talent that the Blue Devils need, and he’s only going to be more potent going forward. That could be enough to put FUMA back into the postseason mix in 2017. ✖
“
It bottoms out and hitters either go over top of it and miss or just get the top and it pops right up. It’s an off-balance pitch.”
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ACADEMIC EDGE
S P O N S O R E D
B Y
H A R G R AV E
M I L I TA R Y
A C A D E M Y
WILLIAM MONROE’S JULIET KARNES Juliet Karnes comes by it honestly. She’s an excellent student and one that wants to continue playing soccer in college. She will at Shenandoah University in the fall. It’s not easy to be a strong student and a strong athlete, but the William Monroe senior has managed to pull it off. With her 4.37 GPA, Karnes has taken more than a handful of advanced placement classes while also participating in a half dozen dual-enrollment classes at Piedmont Community College. Throw in her work with the Beta Club, National Honor Society, and the Blue Ridge Virtual Governor’s School and you’ve got as wellrounded student as you’ll find. In her free time from soccer and school, Karnes started a volunteer service at a local animal shelter. A year-round soccer talent that plays on the club circuit, Karnes had to find a new level of time management as she drove herself to most of her matches. Sne embraced the challenge as there was no bus or carpool to catch up on homework. “This year has definitely been harder than before with practices an hour away,” Karnes said. “I tried to get as much done at home afterwards on the computer or in my study hall.” The quick-footed and lengthy forward has been key to the 11-4 Dragons as they head into the Conference 28 tournament. Don’t expect Karnes to lose her focus, either on or off the field anytime soon
ABOUT HARGRAVE MILITARY ACADEMY Hargrave believes individual achievement is a gamechanger for all students, both on and off the field. With a college acceptance rate of 100% and a heavy emphasis on academics, your son will have competitive advantages ahead of his peers including leadership and character development.
The Academic athlete of the issue is selected by Scrimmage Play’s staff with the consultation of coaches and athletic directors. To nominate an athlete email info@scrimmageplay.com
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TWO SETS
E
ven when playing on a high school team, a sport like tennis can sometimes seem lonely. There aren’t many sports where it’s you and another opponent grinding
it out against each other one-on-one. You’re left largely with the thoughts in your own head, the occasional encouraging yell from another court and the brief advice from coaches during breaks. That makes the time off the court between matches pretty important. Which is why, it’s ideal when your team comes built in with a friend, someone who can listen and understand what you’re going through or help you work or your game. Someone who gets it. Who knows the situation. Even better, it helps if that friend is your sister who comes home with you each night. www.scrimmageplay.com :: 16
“It’s nice to have someone to confide in about tennis and if you get frustrated when you’re not playing well.” — Rosy Ix
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Four members of Western Albemarle girls tennis have exactly that luxury to lean on. Two pairs of sisters compete in the Warriors’ top six, with senior Lauren and sophomore Hannah Kearns and senior Maddy and sophomore Rosy Ix occupying the bulk of the Warriors’ lineup. That’s an incredible accomplishment in its own right as the Warriors are a consistent local power, and cracking the top six at Western isn’t easy for anyone. The Ix sisters were the first pair that got to play together for the Warriors, with Rosy, now a sophomore, joining the team as a freshman after two years of Maddy (who won her 100th career match earlier this season) being a huge factor for the Warriors, including the squad’s state title her sophomore season. Joining a squad where her older sister, especially one as competitive as Maddy Ix, plays in the top spot and is a captain, Rosy Ix knew she needed to be locked in and ready to compete, but that she was also going to have someone to talk with about the ups and downs of playing at the varsity level. “I think it makes me a lot more responsible,” Rosy Ix said. “(Maddy) is very on top of organizing everything. It’s nice to have someone to confide in about tennis and if you get frustrated when you’re not playing well. It’s nice to have someone who knows you really well to just talk to.” Maddy, for her part, was excited to have her sister become a part of the squad, and any initial lingering worries of arguments and fights disappeared pretty quickly. “It was definitely a lot more exciting having her on the team,” Maddy said. “For a while she wasn’t really sure she was going to join and then she decided to try it out. It worked out really well, we support each other on and off the court.” Rosy claims not to be quite as competitive as Maddy, but to just make Western’s top six, you’ve got to be pretty competitive, so that may be a matter of splitting hairs. It’s more that the two players’ approach is different. Not surprisingly, each of the four players has a very particular personality. Those personality differences are part of what helps the Warriors’ chemistry as a whole. Each of the sisters functions so individually that it allows everyone to blend together. “I don’t think (their presence) changes things too much because of how different they each are,” said Western coach Ellen Markowitz. “It could change in certain situations, but sometimes I forget that there are two pairs of sisters honestly.” One way that the Warriors avoid any sisters sequestering themselves from the team is that neither pair of sisters plays doubles together. Maddy Ix plays with Hannah Kearns while Lauren Kearns plays with Savannah Diamond and Rosy Ix takes the court with Molly Servine. That’s not a choice made just for keeping them apart either. Creating successful doubles combinations is in large part about blending the right personalities together and for
Western’s quartet of sisters, pairing up with siblings doesn’t seem to be the right fit. “Although they are sisters and that’s for life, I think that their personalities wouldn’t bring out the best in each of them in the midst of competition while they are playing, as much as they love each other,” Markowitz said. Hannah Kearns has a pretty spot-on analysis of why playing doubles with her older sister could be tough, analysis that’s familiar to anyone who’s had a brother or a sister. “It’s easier to blame her than it would be my other friends on the team,” Hannah said. Lauren, the elder Kearns, who played for Western as a freshman and sophomore, returned to the team this season after participating in an exchange program in Germany last year, which delayed the chance for the Kearns sisters to play together last season. Lauren wasn’t able to play much tennis while in Germany, and when she came back, she was a bit rusty. “It was kind of a learning curve coming back,” Lauren said. “I was getting really frustrated when I got back and I was having trouble hitting shots that I’d always been able to hit. My dad just kept saying it’s like riding, you’ll get the hang of it. That definitely worked out for me.” Both sets of sisters are daughters of former high school tennis coaches, with Patrick Kearns having led Covenant to multiple state championships while Charles Ix piloted the Western boys to a run of state titles a few years back. The Kearns’ family lives and breathes tennis too, with Patrick running 4-Star Camps locally while also operating a tennis pro shop. “Hannah and I both started playing when we were really young,” Lauren said. “We tried a lot of other sports out too, like Hannah also plays field hockey and we tried basketball and lacrosse. We really just always came back to tennis.” The combination of sisters has been successful this year for the Warriors as Western has posted a 17-0 record and a Conference 29 title as they head into region play. With Diamond and Servine filling out the singles ladder, the Warriors are deep, skilled and experienced. They’re also all particularly invested in working together as a team, a critical ingredient to success in a sport where too often individual agendas take center stage. “I’d played tournaments when I was younger when you’re playing for yourself and by yourself,” Hannah Kearns said. “It’s really fun being on a team, winning as a team and getting far as a team.” And that conversation extends beyond the court when you’re sisters. “We kind of understand how invested we are in the team,” Lauren said. “When practice is over we can still be talking about it in the car ride home and at home. We can share our successes even after we’ve gone off the court.” In the next few weeks will see just how far the Warriors can get, with those two sets of sisters leading the way. ✖
“Hannah also plays field hockey and we tried basketball and lacrosse. We really just always came back to tennis” — Lauren Kearns
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Game Time Western 11, Albemarle 6 By Bart Isley
Western’s Oliver Herndon gets a ground ball in his team’s win over Albemarle. (David Balaban)
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For Matthew Mullin and the rest of the Western Albemarle seniors, Friday mattered. There will be other games of course going forward as the Warriors enter postseason play and look to duplicate last year’s run to the state championship game. But Friday, with archrival Albemarle in Crozet on senior night after the Warriors lost to the Patriots earlier this year? Friday mattered. Western capitalized on that emotion with perhaps their most complete performance of the year in an 11-6 victory over the Patriots. “Albemarle, of course cross town rivals, we lost to them earlier this year,” Mullin said. “This means a lot to us, especially going into the playoffs.” Western recognized an entire pack of 13 seniors at halftime, and many of them stepped up in a huge way as the Warriors locked down Albemarle defensively and got a four-goal night from one of those seniors, Carter Elliott. “You get emotional about it because you’ve got 25 guys who come out and they play hard all the time,” said Western coach Alex Whitten. “It’s fun to watch this group of seniors come out and play the way that they did tonight within the capacity of themselves.” Whitten himself has had an emotional few days, missing games for just the second time in his career with the birth of his third son earlier in the week. He returned to the sidelines after the Warriors went 1-1, losing a nailbiter with Patrick Henry. “The only other game I’ve missed in my career was for my brother’s wedding in California when I was in Connecticut,” Whitten said. “It was good to be back on the field, there’s a lot going on.” With Elliott pouring in four goals and
John Carr Haden also notching a four-goal night, Western had enough offense to take advantage of a sterling defensive performance. The Warriors used a zone to lock down an Albemarle team that struggled with the zone a few weeks ago against Covenant. The Patriots struggled to create good looks and put the ball on the cage. “It (keeps) them out of the danger zone, out of the middle and that’s kind of been an issue with us recently,” Mullin said. “The zone really helps us with that, makes them take outside shots.” With the defense clicking and Jack Loffredo giving Western a 13-7 advantage on faceoffs, Albemarle found itself down 5-3 at the break. Western then held the Patriots scoreless during the third quarter before an explosive fourth to shut the door. But the Warriors had to withstand one trial during that fourth, a two-minute unreleasable penalty that appeared destined to allow the Patriots back into the game. But a stop on the defensive end followed by a shorthanded goal by Elliott and then a faceoff win on a groundball pickup by Oliver Herndon made sure that penalty didn’t change the course of the game. Western scored five times during the final frame, including Herndon’s longstick fastbreak goal with 5:31 to play that put Western up 9-5 shortly after Ian Davis closed the gap to three goals with 6:40 to play. Davis finished with a hat trick for the Patriots while Lorenz Brown had two goals and an assist and Ethan Blundin notched two assists. Justin Peck had a goal for Albemarle and Nemo Lesesane made 13 saves to help keep Albemarle within striking distance. For Western, senior Jackson Sours made 10 saves in the cage while Herndon finished with his goal and two assists and Luke Reilly had two goals. Elliott and Haden each added an assist to their four goal efforts.✖
TEAM SPOTLIGHT FLUVANNA COUNTY The importance of finishing high school often gets understated. It’s an important accomplishment in any young person’s life. Fluvanna County did a great job of showing that by having the Class of 2016 walk through the hallways of Carysbrook Elemtary, in full cap and gown garb meeting and greeting the next generation of students. Even the youngest of students need a reminder of what is at the end of the road and what it looks like. Great job, Flucos! Good luck going forward and congratulations! 495 Brookway Drive,
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Overtime
Shot and a save Never take the body in front of the net for granted
A
group of teammates and I once spent an entire semester convincing one of my best friends to play goalie for our lacrosse team. It was a long, protracted negotiation, a constant back and forth about how important his decision was to us and how he was going to be a huge help. This was a squad where a group of us were sort of player/coaches. We had two coaches, one who knew his stuff but was flaky and another who was a great dude, super reliable, but had never even played lacrosse, much less coached it. We finally convinced our friend Tom to show up and step into the cage. He was bad. Really bad. I kind of thought up until that point that replacement level goalies were easy to find. Sure there were a handful of great keepers, but I thought pretty much anyone you stuck back there could do an adequate job, especially with a defender like myself, who while athletically-challenged handled most of the calls, knew the clears and got everyone in the right spot. We were terribly, terribly wrong. A game or so into the year, we had to make a change because we were struggling. We moved Tom to an occasional crease attackman role where his job was to plant himself in front of the keeper and screen him. Keepers are really hard to find because they’re a different breed, and between soccer and lacrosse, this area has had its fair share of solid last lines of defense. Just in the last seven years, there was Western boys soccer’s Kai Shin, Albemarle girls soccer’s Betsy Haugh, Fluvanna girls soccer’s Morgan Symmers, STAB boys lacrosse’s Austin Geisler and Eric Buhle, STAB girls lacrosse’s Catherine Towers, Woodberry boys lacrosse’s Ben Pugh and many, many others. A number of those players have gone on to play at the next level, including two who are currently teammates, Pugh and Buhle, for Richmond men’s lacrosse. This spring , we’re seeing a rash of intriguing goalie performances crossing lines of school, sport and experience. The strangest one is the emergence of Patrick Blake for STAB boys lacrosse. The defending state champions needed some help with Buhle headed to Richmond, and they found it in a pretty unlikely place in Blake, who hadn’t picked up a stick competitively since seventh grade. Blake had a series of concussions that limited him to a placekicking role in football for several years, before he returned as a quarterback/wideout this fall. Then in the spring, STAB needed a keeper, and convinced Blake to come out and take the spot. While he’s been predictably inconsistent (there’s no immediate fix for more than four years of rust), he’s been his best late this year, posting 10 saves in a critical regular season-ending win over Collegiate. Another goalie that’s essentially come out of nowhere as far as high school sports is concerned is Albemarle boys soccer’s Jake Gelnovatch. The Louisville-bound keeper spent the first three years of his high school career focused on the club system, but decided to join the Patriots this spring, and he’s lived up to his credentials, giving an already loaded Albemarle squad a wall in goal that not too many teams or players have managed to solve. Not only that, but Gelnovatch has also proven to be a solid scoring option when he plays occasionally in the field for the Patriots. A true dual threat. There’s a host of other keepers making noise too, including senior Brittany Schoeb, who has taken a big leap forward as STAB girls lacrosse’s goalie after a couple of seasons
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“We were, terribly, terribly wrong. A game or so into the year, we had to make a change because we were struggling.” in the cage. Louisa girls soccer’s Columbia Harkrader has managed to limit some of the area’s best teams to lower-than-normal goal outputs with tremendous efforts in the box. Covenant boys lacrosse’s Austin Hall, a longtime fixture in the cage for the Eagles and before that at Charlottesville, has played much of the year with an injury and has helped boost Covenant to a No. 2 seed in the VISAA’s Division II. Western boys soccer has gotten a strong season-long performance from Jon Whyte, who’s headed to Emory. So as the postseason gets into full swing, keep an eye on the goalies, whether it’s soccer or lacrosse. Like in the NHL playoffs, a hot keeper can take you places. And like I’ve learned, unless the guy you recruited out of the lunch room is Patrick Blake, solid goalies aren’t particularly easy to find. ✖
Bart Isley,
CRE ATIVE DIRECTOR
back talk »
Who’s best goalkeeper you’ve seen over the past few years?: bart@scrimmageplay.com
Success stories begin here.
Success Story: Antonio Allen At his size, Antonio Allen could and did play just about everywhere on the field. Sometimes athletes like Antonio Allen can get lumped into the dreaded ‘tweeener’ category where coaches at the next level can’t quite decide where they’d like you, and in the end, never do and move on. By the time that he finished up at Fork Union, South Carolina wasn’t entirely certain what do with Allen, but they knew that they’d find a way to make it work. Allen came to FUMA by way of Trinity Catholic High in Florida to play for John Shuman’s celebrated postgraduate football team. He left a more polished athlete and a stronger student. That allowed Allen to head to South Carolina in the spring semester of 2008 and participate through spring drills. As a freshman, Allen found himself
playing “SAM” linebacker. The next year as a sophomore and junior, he slid over to the Gamecocks’ “spur” position. As a senior in 2011, Allen polished his game to NFL talent level. He was a seventh round selection in the NFL Draft by the New York Jets. The former Gamecock and Blue Devil was locked in as a starter after he finished 2013 with 16 games started, 63 tackles, a sack and an interception which he returned for a touchdown. In 2014 he started 15 games, had 36 tackles, defended six passes and forced a fumble. Allen missed the 2015 season because of injury and signed with the Houston Texans this spring. He’s been through a bit of everything at each level so the move to Houston is just another part of his successful journey.
Fork Union Military Academy is the leading Christian military boarding school for boys in grades 6 - 12 and PG. www.forkunion.com — 1-800-GO-2-FUMA