Warriors top Wood for tourney title

November 5, 2010

By Mark Sawyer
Special to The Winchester Star       

Though the Warriors just completed winning their third consecutive Northwestern District regular season volleyball title, they had failed to win the tournament in that span - until Thursday night.

Once again using a balanced attack, the Warriors over powered rival James Wood 3-1 (25-16, 25-23, 21-25, 25-14) to complete a perfect district season.

"It's just awesome. We finally finished out the season with the tournament," said senior outside hitter Lauren Wilkins, who finished with a match-high 16 kills and two aces. "It was always something each year. But this year, finally, my senior year, we made it happen. We won the district, we won the tournament, and now we'll play the regionals."

"It feels good," added Ashby, the third-year coach. "It's very rewarding, and I told the girls this is a night they're going to remember - especially the seniors. This was just a tremendous all-team effort. I feel like our team is complete, and the girls jell real well."

Both teams advance to next week's Region II tournament, and both will host their first matches.

The Warriors earn a bye and will host a quarterfinal match Tuesday. The Colonels will host a first round match Monday.

Thursday night's title match was what everyone expected from the best two teams in the district: Back-and-forth action with solid serves and attention-grabbing kills from both sides of the net. Sherando (19-3) grabbed the advantage early in the first set, breaking a 6-6 tie with a 6-1 run on kills from Brooke Schneider and Wilkins and an ace from Megan James. The Colonels helped out with three errors.

Wood (16-6) got close as four points on two different occasions, the last being 15-11, but a 10-5 Sherando run closed out the set and gave the Warriors the early lead in the match

Five different Warriors picked up aces in the first set, but there was no question where the attacks were coming from. Schneider (14 kills, five blocks, and two aces) delivered five kills in the set, while Wilkins had four.

Kills by Hannah Tierney and Rachel Rau, along with a well placed bump by Emily Shannon, spotted the Colonels a 4-1 lead in the second set.

The Warriors scored three straight to tie it, only to see the Colonels go on a 6-1 run and take a 10-5 lead.

Still trailing 14-10, the Warriors stormed back to tie the score at 15-15, then took a 16-15 lead on a kill by Wilkins.

The Warriors took control at 19-16, but the Colonels wouldn't give in, rallying to close to 20-19 on three errors by the Warriors.

A pair of kills by Wilkins, an ace by James, and another error by the Colonels gave made it set point at 24-20, and it looked like the Warriors would cruise to a 2-0 lead.

But the Colonels stormed back into the set. An error by Sherando, followed by a Shannon kill and a Tierney block made it 24-23, before a serve into the net handed the Warriors a 2-0 lead.

Just like the first two sets, the third was back and forth, tied five different times. But this time Tierney took over for the Colonels and made sure they weren't going to be shut out.

With the score tied 9-9, the teams went back and forth for six points, with Tierney and Wilkins seemingly slamming kills every other point.

Trailing 12-11, the Colonels got consecutive kills from Tierney and Shannon, followed by a pair of aces from Tierney to take a 15-12 lead.

They eventually pushed the lead to 21-17 before the Warriors once again came storming back. Three straight kills by Wilkins closed the gap to 21-20.

The Colonels weren't going to let this set slip away, though. Another kill by Tierney, followed by a tip from Shannon and an ace by Megan Crabtree made it set point at 24-20.

After a service error gave the serve back to Sherando, Shannon forced a fourth game by rocketing a kill through the Warriors defense.

Losing just their third set to a district opponent all season (all to the Colonels), the Warriors came out on fire in the fourth. Schneider's block broke a 2-2 tie and sparked a 10-2 run to make it 12-4.

Sherando continued to pour it on, extending the lead to 20-9 and then 24-11 on an ace from Schneider. The Colonels lengthened the match with a 3-0 run, but the set and match ended on a strange net call that went against Wood.

"It was a good match," James Wood coach Jill Lester said. "I think they were attacking the ball more in the back row this time. They didn't do that the first time we saw them, and we had a little trouble adjusting to their back row attacks. We battled back in the second set to within two, and we were done in the third set and came back. It just shows the heart that my girls have.

"There's nothing to be disappointed about. We came out here and gave it a good run. It was an exciting night for volleyball."

Megan Sirbaugh chipped in 10 kills, two aces and a block for Sherando.

For the Colonels Tierney had 12 kills, two blocks and two aces, Crabtree had two kills and two aces, and Shannon finished with seven kills, two aces, and a block.

That leaves Shannon just two kills short of 1,000 for her career, a milestone the Colonels are looking forward to her reaching at home Monday night.

At that point, there will be no margin of error for either of the district's regional qualifiers.

"We've got to win Tuesday," said Ashby, whose team bowed out at the hands of Western Albemarle in the regional semifinals the last two years. "Our goal from now on is game by game. There's no second chances - if we lose the first round, we're done and we go home."