The Albemarle girls volleyball team kept its Group AAA title defense alive Tuesday night, downing Heritage in the Northwest Region quarterfinals.

Nothing follows up an important, emotional win like another one. Ask coach Mark Ragland, whose Albemarle volleyball team knocked off Brooke Point on senior night, 3-1 (25-8, 25-9, 17-25, 25-11) to clinch the school’s first outright regular season Commonwealth District title since 2002 on Tuesday.

After two decades of coaching the Patriots, one of the finest volleyball coaches in the state of Virginia earned his just reward — a Group AAA crown.

Already an All-Northwest Region selection, a state champion and the school’s record holder for kills in a season, Kara Elder can add The Daily Progress’ 2008 Central Virginia Player of the Year award to her list of accolades.

After 20 seasons, Albemarle head coach and Virginia’s all-time wins leader Mark Ragland finally has his state title

“Coming back in that last game was really amazing,” said Patriots coach Mark Ragland. “When you’re up 2-0 and then everything turns against you, it’s really hard to find that inner strength.“

The Patriots will finally head back home for the Group AAA quarterfinals, the program’s fifth trip to the state tournament in the Mark Ragland era.

In Purcellville, Albemarle volleyball pulled off a monster upset in the Northwest Region Championship, as the Patriots knocked off home standing Loudoun Valley, 3-2.

The Patriots advanced to the second round of the Commonwealth District tournament with their 3-2 win, but got all they could handle from visiting Stafford.

Albemarle instead decided to make it a match by taking the next two games to force a fifth and final game.

The Patriots battled through their own mental mistakes to take down the Black Hawks 25-20, 25-18, 25-10.

Former Albemarle High standout R.J. Archer made his first career start at quarterback for William & Mary this past Saturday.

As it turns out Ragland surpassed the old record over the summer, when most volleyball teams were going through preseason workouts before practice started in August. That’s when the Virginia High School League made a simple correction to former record-holder Lillie Moore’s win total from 415 to 372 victories, immediately vaulting Ragland, the state’s active leader, into the top spot all-time.

Albemarle High’s volleyball team isn’t just winning matches right now — they’re dominating them. The Patriots (12-0) have lost just three games in matches this year behind the heavy-hitting attack duo of Kara Elder and Laura Gomez.