Preps Plus

It took 33 shots, but Western Albemarle’s girls soccer team finally broke through Thursday night with 8:53 left in the contest to take a 1-0 victory over Louisa County.
Stephanie Adams provided the winner on a rebound off Louisa County goalie Mary Wittenberg from point-blank range after a shot by Kelsey Swanson from the left side.
“We handled the ball well and defensively and midfield-wise we’re pretty stellar,” said Western head coach Kevin Murphy. “With nearly 40 shots, one of them is bound to go in.”
The Warriors finished with 36 shots. The win came just a day after an 11-0 explosion against William Monroe.
Western Albemarle controlled the midfield for most of the contest, winning the great major-ity of the free balls before quickly redirecting the ball back towards the Louisa goal. L.P. Desch, Cory Murphy, Noaa Spiekermann, Everleigh Stokes and Kirsten Abraham all played a big part in keeping the ball in.
The Warriors’ midfield dominance rarely allowed Louisa to take the ball into the offensive zone, which took the Lions’ speedy forwards Imani Callen and Kelley Par-rish all but out of the game. The Lions managed just a pair of shots in the 80 minutes.
Western (5-4, 4-1 Jef-ferson) has two more Jefferson games next week before a critical matchup with Fluvanna County on Thursday at home.
Louisa (1-4 JD), who has been on the short end of several one-goal games, will try and pick up a second district vic-tory against Monticello on Tuesday. More to come on the Lions in next week’s Preps Plus notebook.