Loudoun County sweeps Wood in Region 4C volleyball championship

LEESBURG — The James Wood volleyball team has shown championship mettle all year.

But there isn’t a volleyball program in Virginia that knows how to handle championship matches better than Loudoun County.

The seven-time defending state champions pulled away early in the first set, halfway through the second set and pulled out a tight third set to sweep the Colonels 25-15, 25-16, 25-23 on Wednesday night in the Region 4C championship match.

The Colonels (23-4) are still heading to the Class 4 state tournament and will take on Region 4D champion Blacksburg on the road on Saturday in the quarterfinals. The Raiders (23-1) will host Jefferson Forest.

James Wood coach Jaime Terenzi could tell the Colonels weren’t their typical selves early on. The Class 4 Northwestern District champions surrendered three straight aces to Loudoun County’s Chandler Vaughan to fall behind 4-0. The Colonels settled down some and tied the set at 7 apiece, but the Raiders ripped off a 7-0 run and did not let their lead dip below seven the rest of the set.

“I think the nerves got to them,” Terenzi said. “We tried really hard to kind of alleviate pressure and tell them to just play their game, play together and enjoy playing.

“But I think playing Loudoun County — not necessarily being in the regional championship match — but playing Loudoun County, a team that’s so polished and so together, was tough. I think we could have gone back and forth more than we did, but I think my players put a lot of pressure on themselves to play well, and I don’t think that necessarily helped them do their best.”

James Wood junior outside hitter Kristyna Van Sickler (11 kills, seven digs, four aces) felt the Colonels’ reputation got into their heads early. James Wood had three attack errors and three service errors in the first set.

“We were a little worried,” Van Sickler said. “They’re reigning state champs, and they’re really good. I think we just let that get to us and I don’t think we were able to play as fierce as we usually do.”

The Colonels came out stronger in the second set, as Van Sickler had three aces and a kill and Costin had one of her three blocks in 5-0 run that put Wood ahead 7-3, but the Raiders answered with a 5-0 run of their own.

Lainie Putt put the Colonels up 12-11 with a kill from several feet behind the net, but Loudoun County put together an 8-1 run to take control. The Colonels were called for a lift and a double hit during the spurt, two of the four points James Wood surrendered for illegal touches or violations at the net in the set.

“I think we just had a lot of unforced errors on our part,” said Costin, who also had three aces. “We gave them a lot of points.”

For the match, James Wood had seven attack errors and five service errors, while Loudoun County had just two of each.

The Colonels had an excellent chance to win the third set and showed fight in doing so. For example, at 17-17, Van Sickler dove toward the back line to dig a ball up to Katey Matthews (10 assists), who set Grace Frigaard up for one of her eight kllls.

With Wood leading 21-19, Loudoun County answered with a 4-0 run to make it 23-21. A long serve by the Raiders and a Putt kill tied it at 23-23, but a kill by the Raiders’ Olivia Mallow (11 kills) after Costin nearly blocked the ball made it 24-23. Loudoun County then closed it out after a set too close to the net allowed Alicia McCandless to block the ball over to Wood’s side. The Colonels dove for the ball but could barely lift it off the ground.

The Colonels hope they can build off the third set and use that to come out stronger on Saturday against Blacksburg.

“I think the third set was when we were like, ‘We can handle this. We can do this,’” Van Sickler said. “I think we put up a really good fight. Two points, it could have gone either way.”

“They’re super excited for states,” Terenzi said. “As a team, I think they’ll come together and do very well.”

James Wood also was led by Hanna Plasters (15 assists) and Becca Lever (seven digs).

Though James Wood was disappointed with its play at times, the Colonels earned a lot of praise from Raiders coach John Senchak, particularly setter Plasters.

“James Wood, they pushed us out of our comfort zone tonight,” he said. “I was not satisfied with the way we managed that, but a lot of that was due to the play of James Wood.

“They have a lot of power, and I have to tip my hat [to Plasters]. She was bringing the ball back into system with alarming regularity. That was really tough for us. And their hitters are constantly in good position.”

Sarah Jordan added eight kills for the Raiders.

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