Warriors upend Hornets

It was a defensive struggle Tuesday night in Crozet as the Western Albemarle field hockey team faced off against Orange County in its first district game of the year.
The Warriors, coming off a successful tournament in Herndon last week, took the momentum into Tuesday’s game, edging the Hornets
1-0.
Both teams got off to slow starts and shots were hard to come by. Senior goalkeepers Lindsey Gibson of Western and Sarah Edmondson of Orange had solid games, stopping 11 shots between them.
With four minutes to go in the second half, Western capitalized on a short corner, scoring the only goal of the game. Freshman Olivia Hajek took the pass from Darallia Evans and slamed the ball into the back of the goal.
“We want her to take those shots. We actually want her to shoot more, if she would,” said Western coach Mia Fields after the game. “She’s gaining more and more confidence in her abilities every day.”
Western’ defense came up big down the stretch, topping three shots on goal from Orange’s Lauren Seal in a matter of seconds.
“Orange’s girls have strong drives and Lindsey did a great job in goal,” Fields said. “Our assistant coaches drive on her a lot in practice, so that helps her out a ton.”
Other than the one stretch, Orange had a tough time getting anything going all evening. “Hesitant” was the word Orange County coach Trish Grabeel used to describe her teams performance.
“We reacted to what they were trying to do at times,” she said. “We played on our haunches tonight. We have to have that attitude that we can play with anybody on any given night.”
Western (5-2, 1-0 JD) hosts Collegiate in a non-district game on Thursday. Orange (5-2, 0-1) hosts Louisa in a district matchup.