The James Wood Volleyball team is now the 4x reigning PETERSBURG — James Wood volleyball’s season-long dream has become a reality.
The Colonels won their fourth consecutive Virginia High School League state title on Saturday morning, defeating Loudoun County 3-1 (25-21, 25-15, 19-25, 25-18) at Virginia State University to finish the season 30-2. Loudoun County finished 17-6 after losing for the second time this season to James Wood, with the Colonels beating them 2-0 (25-15, 25-21) at the Champions Classic that they hosted in August.
This win was meaningful for senior outside hitters Kennedy Spaid and Brenna Corbin, who’ll leave the program having won four state titles across their four varsity seasons. The victory also allowed head coach Adrienne Patrick to end her sixth and final season as Colonels’ head coach on a high note before beginning her new role as an assistant principal at Millbrook.
“It’s certainly amazing, but it’s super sad, leaving all the other girls behind,” Corbin said. “But we really fought hard, and I’m glad I could do it with these girls and these coaches by my side.”
“We can do 1,000 drills, right? But the buy-in and the people wanting to be here, that’s the thing that’s special, that doesn’t come around too often,” Patrick said. “So I just am incredibly proud of them, and the fact that we were able to do this, and that we’re leaving on such a high.”
Corbin and Spaid left everything on the court in their final match, finishing with 20 kills and 26 digs and 18 kills, 14 digs and three blocks, respectively. Their fellow senior, middle hitter Claire Keefer, added three blocks, two aces and fives digs and junior setter Kylee Plumb recorded 19 assists and 10 digs.
Saturday’s match got off to a competitive start.
After the score was tied 5-5, a burst of offense from Corbin in which she scored four points helped James Wood go ahead 10-8. Over the next six points that ended with the Colonels up 13-11, they received two kills by middle hitter Kennedi Bower along with a kill from Plumb.
A few possessions later, a service error on the Captains kickstarted a 6-0 James Wood run that brought the lead to 21-13. Plumb and Spaid both made plays at the net during this stretch, while two additional errors contributed to senior Claire Keefer’s 5-0 service run.
Loudoun County’s Sydney Miller recorded a kill and an ace to help the Captains go on a 5-1 run that cut its deficit to 22-18. Though James Wood committed two more errors from that point, kills by Corbin and Wilhelm allowed their team to take the opening set 25-21.
The Colonels kept their momentum going in the second set, jumping out to a 5-0 lead. Two errors, along with a block by Keefer and a kill by Spaid, helped move the lead to 10-4.
Two kills by Spaid and another from Corbin kept the Colonels going strong, moving the lead to 15-7. Corbin then scored three more points, bringing the set to 18-12 after the Colonels committed a service error, ball handling error and attack error.
A kill from Spaid and an ace by Keefer extended their team’s advantage to 22-13 before a kill by Wilhelm, an attack error on the Captains and an ace by Spaid secured the second set by a 25-15 score.
James Wood faced its toughest test of the morning during a grueling third set that the Captains won by six. Throughout this set, the Colonels suffered several self-inflicted wounds, finishing with nine errors.
Spaid and Loudoun County’s Charlotte Arrington recorded two kills each as part of an opening stretch that ended with the Captains up 5-4. From here, the Captains went on a 10-4 run for a 15-8 advantage. During this stretch, a substitution error on the Colonels stopped the match for several minutes.
Plumb scored a pair of points to cut the deficit to 16-10, but Loudoun County responded with a 9-3 run, reaching set point on a kill by Miller.
James Wood wasn’t willing to surrender. With the score 24-15, the Colonels put together a 4-0 run before Loudoun County’s Josephine Seekford put the set away with a kill.
Even though the Colonels lost the third set, Patrick said James Wood’s late surge paved the way for the team’s strong fourth game.
“At the end, the rally back, that ability to keep somebody at match point for a couple points … it was a reset,” Patrick said. “We were already getting in that groove, and that just carried over into the fourth set.”
The final set opened with a block by middle hitter Kylie Putt that fired up her teammates. This led into a pair of points from Spaid, giving the Colonels a 3-1 lead.
Four errors on the Captains, along with a kill by middle hitter Reese Justice, furthered James Wood’s lead to 8-3. A pair of assists from Bella Middleton to Corbin tacked on another two points before Wilhelm added a kill to make it 11-4.
Two kills by Seekford helped Loudoun County draw closer (12-7) before Miller added two points of her own to cut the Colonels’ lead to 14-10.
After Patrick called time, James Wood came out of the huddle and scored on a kill by Spaid and a block by Justice. Spaid recorded a block of her own and the Captains committed two errors, which extended the Colonels’ lead to 19-12.
A 4-1 Loudoun County run made it 20-17, but a pair of kills by Corbin coming out of another timeout gave her team a five-point lead.
The Captains scored one more point, but kills from each of the three seniors fittingly capped off the Colonels’ fourth straight state championship. Spaid made the match-winning kill.
Spaid said the team’s “family” dynamic helped it end the season with a championship.
“It’s very emotional. I’m trying not to cry right now,” Spaid said. “We’re definitely really close this year. There’s no TMI (too much information) with us at all, and so we all just talk about everything … we’re just a family, for real.”
The Colonels are the first Frederick County team in any sport to win four straight state titles. Saturday’s win made James Wood the first team in The Winchester Star coverage area to win four consecutive state titles since the Clarke County girls’ cross country team captured championships every year from 2004-2007.
James Wood’s state championship run began in 2022, a season that started with a win over Loudoun County. The Captains had won 14 state titles in 15 seasons heading into 2022, including 10 straight from 2012-2021. Loudoun County beat James Wood for the 2014 state title.
Since the start of 2022, the Colonels have compiled a record of 108-8, with this year’s team setting a school record for victories.
Patrick said that, while this victory meant a lot to her and her three seniors, she’s also confident it will mean something to James Wood’s entire program going forward.
“It’s the fact that, with this team specifically, you’re able to pass something on,” Patrick said. “It’s not just that this is in a [record] book, or that we have a trophy that’s going to be in a case. It’s the fact that all the traditions that we do … all of this stuff continues. Having younger kids on the team, that allows this to just go further.
“I hope that everything they’ve learned and everything they’ve experienced while I was their coach, that that continues, that they don’t lose anything in their heart that we’ve done.”
— Contact Joe Tuman at jtuman@winchesterstar.com
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