WINCHESTER — After defeating Sherando in the Region 4D quarterfinals, James Wood faced another local rival in Millbrook on Monday amid its quest to repeat as Class 4 state champions.
Despite the Pioneers’ refusal to quit, the Colonels came through in many key moments to win the volleyball semifinal match 3-1 (25-19, 25-22, 23-25, 25-18) at their Shirley Gymnasium. James Wood will now host E.C. Glass in the Region 4D championship match at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.
Throughout their win, the Colonels were led by outside hitter Kennedy Spaid (17 kills, 12 digs, two aces), outside hitter Brenna Corbin (nine kills, 16 digs, three aces), middle blocker Claire Keefer (seven kills, five digs, three blocks) and setter Kylee Plumb (22 assists, 11 digs).
Head coach Adrienne Patrick said she felt her entire lineup found ways to contribute during the match.
“I feel like they definitely played together,” Patrick said. “I feel like we utilized many players. It wasn’t like we were only going to one person the whole night, which I greatly appreciate, because that just shows the depth of our team.”
It took a strong collective effort to defeat a resilient Millbrook team. The Pioneers brought the fight, rallying from a 19-9 deficit in set two to make things close, before taking the third set for themselves. They finished the season 19-4.
Millbrook head coach Dave White said he was “really proud of the effort” from his players.
“It would’ve been easy to walk in here and get rolled over by a really good team on that side,” White said. “But instead, we stepped up. I thought we did a really good job defensively … the defense is so much improved from the start of the season.”
White also noted that outside hitter Aaliyah Green and setter and middle blocker McKenna Homans had “amazing” games on both ends. Green finished with 18 kills.
James Wood opened the match with vigor, leading 5-2 following a pair of kills by Spaid. A kill by Dreu Patterson and an error on the Colonels cut into the lead, but Corbin responded with two kills to make it 9-4.
Millbrook gathered some momentum and went on a 7-2 run that tied the set at 11. Homans, Green and Patterson all scored during this stretch, with Homans recording a kill and an ace.
After kills from Spaid and Kyla Wilhelm gave James Wood a 15-12 lead. A Spaid ace and another Wilhelm kill extend the lead to 18-12. After a service error on the Colonels, Corbin scored to make it 19-13.
Millbrook scored two more points before committing an attack error, making it 23-14. Homans and Green each added another kill before Claire Keefer struck to bring James Wood to set point.
Millbrook scored two more points before Keefer made a kill to end the first set, giving her team a 25-19 win.
Wilhelm said this opening set did a lot for the team’s confidence as the match grew more tense later on.
“It feels good just knowing that we fought from the beginning,” Wilhelm said. “We had so much good energy tonight. It was just so fun, knowing that we played that way and we got what we wanted.”
The second set featured a lot of miscues by the Pioneers, as they committed 13 errors. Several of these mistakes came as a result of their hitters sailing the ball out of bounds over James Wood defenders’ heads.
One such error, along with a service error, a kill by Keefer and an ace from Kennedi Bower, made it 6-3 James Wood.
Spaid recorded a kill and an ace and Corbin added a kill to bring the lead to 11-5. A kill by Avery Fauver and an ace from Paisley Cook narrowed the deficit to five, but a pair of Pioneer errors made it 14-7.
Soon after, Kylee Plumb set Bower up for a kill and Corbin recorded an ace. Green responded with a kill to make it 16-9 Colonels.
Spaid made an impressive play by dropping the ball between two Millbrook defenders who were both looking to make a play to move the lead to 18-9. Corbin then made a timely dig to get the ball to Spaid for another kill to give the Colonels a 19-9 lead.
After Millbrook seemingly committed another error, the officials overturned the call and awarded Green a kill to make it 20-11 Colonels. James Wood then lost awareness of where the ball was in the air, causing it to drop down and give Millbrook another point. Two more errors on James Wood then lowered the lead to 20-15.
Three straight Millbrook errors gave James Wood a stronger cushion, but the Pioneers made a push. An ace by Reese Cooke followed by a Lora Totcheva block made it 23-18. James Wood’s Reese Justice then recorded a block to bring her team to set point.
A service error and an attack error on the Colonels helped Millbrook narrow the gap to 24-20, before two more errors made it 24-22. Coming out of a James Wood timeout, the Pioneers committed a service error to give the Colonels a 25-22 set win.
“I think when we take a look at a couple of those sets, we’ll see that the point differential was based off of our own hitting errors, not necessarily anything was happening on the other side of the court,” White said of set two.
Not rattled by a disappointing end to the second set, the Pioneers jumped out to a 10-4 lead in set three. Green recorded three kills and a block over this stretch, while Cooke recorded back-to-back aces that caused James Wood to call timeout.
After this break, the Colonels went on a 7-0 run to take an 11-10 lead. This run was powered by Macie Hewitt, who recorded a pair of aces.
After Fauver recorded a kill to tie things up, a sequence where neither team could get on a significant run began, leading to a 19-19 tie. An attack error and service error on the Pioneers, along with a kill by Corbin, gave the Colonels a 22-20 advantage.
A kill from Fauver, an error on James Wood and back-to-back kills by Green gave Millbrook a 24-22 lead. Corbin recorded a point, but Green then closed out the set with another kill to give Millbrook the 25-23 set victory.
White said he told his team not to panic after a difficult end to the second set.
“The message was stay calm,” White said. “This is a last chance for two of our kids to play as seniors. Just stay calm. Make sure that you leave everything you have on the court.”
Looking to get back on track, James Wood jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the final set behind two kills from Keefer and an ace from Corbin. Later, a kill and an ace from Spaid gave the Colonels a 10-4 advantage.
Three straight errors on James Wood made the score 11-8 Colonels, but James Wood followed with a 5-0 run for a 16-8 lead. A kill by Green and an error on the home team tallied two more points for Millbrook, but a kill from Spaid and an ace by Corbin helped extend James Wood’s lead to 20-10.
Soon after, the Colonels committed three errors, and Patterson added a kill to make it 21-15. Keefer scored on a kill and an ace before Green scored again for Millbrook. It was now 23-16.
Fauver and Spaid traded kills and Patterson made a block before Wilhelm recorded the final kill of the night to send her team to the championship round. The Colonels took the set 25-18.
Wilhelm said that facing a tough opponent in Millbrook challenged the entire lineup to step up and helped James Wood find a way to hold off the Pioneers’ comeback efforts.
“I think [the mindset was] just keep playing our game,” Wilhelm said. “Keep talking, do what we know how to do. They’re a good team, and we love playing good teams, and we also love rising to the occasion. I think that’s what we did.”
Heading into the Colonels’ rematch with E.C. Glass, who they defeated 3-0 in the Region 4D championship a year ago, Patrick said she’s confident her players’ “togetherness” will continue to propel it forward.
“Just the routine that we have, we’re eating meals together, watching film together … they put real effort and consciousness into what they’re doing,” Patrick said. “ This isn’t just willy nilly, ‘we’ll go out here and see what happens.’ Everything is very methodical.”
— Contact Joe Tuman at jtuman@winchesterstar.com
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