Altavista, Nelson County facing plenty of competition this year in Dogwood District volleyball

For the past decade, the Dogwood District volleyball title has bounced back and forth between Altavista and Nelson County, with the Governors and Colonels sharing a 10-season reign as champions.

Nelson donned the crown in 2000 before Altavista captured it in 2001, a year before claiming its first Group A state title, and retained it for six consecutive seasons. The Governors took it back in 2006 before the Colonels earned side out in 2007 and the Governors broke their serve last fall.

This fall, it appears to be a wide-open race with William Campbell looking to make noise and steal some of the thunder from the perennial champions as well as Appomattox and Gretna, which won a Group AA state title in 1993.

“The title will run through Nelson or Altavista,” Generals coach Brad Harper said.

Altavista coach Debra Spencer isn’t so sure.

“In the past, there’s been one or possibly two teams in the district who could win the title,” she said. “Now there are three or four, but until someone can beat Nelson, they’re the favorite again.”

Spencer has been impressed with the Generals in particular.

“They’ve made significant improvement,” she said. “They have players with a lot of experience, who started as freshmen and now are juniors and seniors.”

“This is kind of the year we’ve been pointing to all along,” added Harper, who has three seniors and eight juniors.

William Campbell split five-game matches against its first three opponents, all from the Seminole District, falling to Brookville and Rustburg before beating Heritage.

“(Five) seems to be our magic number,” Harper said. “We hope we’re taking something from each. We’re trying to really beef up our non-district schedule to compete for the Dogwood District title.”

Playing Seminole District squads, he said, has helped the Generals adjust to the faster speed of the game and learn how to deal with momentum swings and to mentally prepare for each match.

“Even though we’re not where we want to be record-wise, I am pleased with the way we’ve played and how the team has responded to these challenges,” Harper said.

The Generals feature seniors Chasity Toms, Blair Brightwell and Miranda Schrock and junior setter Jordan Haga and middle hitter Michaela Holbrooks, who’s playing well coming off ACL reconstruction after tearing it at the end of the basketball season.

Lauren Marstin is in her first season starting at libero on varsity, coming up with outside hitters Ashley Shipley and Paige Singleton from a JV team that went 18-2 last fall.

“The more comfortable she gets at that position, the better we’re going to be as a team,” Harper said of Marstin. “When she gets a good dig, we’re able to turn our defense into offense. We’re playing much better team defense than we ever have and she’s kind of the person in the back keeping a lot of plays alive or making the digs that allow us to run some offense.”

Altavista opened its season with wins over Rustburg and Brookville. The Colonels return Andra Brumfield, a first-team all-district outside hitter last fall, Kristen Gibson, another senior starter, and middle hitter Charnelle Miller, an excellent blocker.

“She gives us a middle threat and a blocking threat,” Spencer said.

Lindsay Mayberry, who backed up Kacey Angell at setter last year, now starts at that position, the same played by Spencer when she was a student athlete at Altavista.

“She gained experience in the games she stepped in for Kacey last year and is now more comfortable in her role this year,” said Spencer, who still is trying to replace Amanda Sandridge, one of the best blockers in the district last year. “She had such an impact on our team … it’s not going to be a single-person effort.”

She knows it will take a team effort to knock off the Governors and reclaim the district title.

“Nelson returns a lot of their players,” Spencer said, noting it did graduate setter Shay Morazes, last season’s district player of the year. “They return just about everybody else.”

Keona Loving has replaced Morazes at the setter position and distributed 23 assists in a sweep of Amherst as the Governors improved to 4-2. Ashley Wells and Erika Tolliver are among the Governors’ top hitters.

Brittany Crawford returns at libero and contributed 15 digs against the Lancers, helping to raise Nelson’s intensity level on defense.

Spencer has the utmost respect for Vicky Crawford, the only coach in the Dogwood with seniority over her.

“She’s been around longer than I have and they’ve been consistently good for a lot of years,” Spencer said. “Her teams play hard for her.”