WINCHESTER — With its back against the wall, Millbrook volleyball once again showcased its talent and depth during a dramatic comeback win over James Wood on Thursday.
The visiting Pioneers fell behind 2-0 early, but rallied to reverse sweep the Colonels 3-2 (22-25, 24-26, 25-21, 25-11, 15-10) and improve to 17-1. James Wood fell to 12-6-2, but showed improvement from a four-set loss to Millbrook on Sept. 22.
Millbrook’s ability to rely on multiple sources of offense paid dividends, as three Pioneers recorded 12 kills or more.
Avery Fauver led the way with 28 kills and 27 digs, recording the final three points of both the third and fourth sets. Lora Totcheva added 14 kills, Hannah Mood recorded 12 kills and five aces, McKenna Homans had 45 assists and three kills, Kate Madden made 39 digs and Madi Carter totaled 21 digs to lead the Pioneers.
Totcheva, who scored the match’s final point off an assist from Homans, said Millbrook has a tendency to know what the moment requires.
“It felt amazing [to come all the way back],” Totcheva said. “I feel we always see when we’re down and we know where our energy sits, and we just are quick to pick our heads up and recover quickly.”
After mounting its comeback to tie the match, Millbrook got out to an 11-3 lead in the fifth set behind two kills and two aces from Fauver and kills from Mood, Totcheva and Reagan Knotts. James Wood went on a 4-0 run to make it 11-7 before committing an error.
Totcheva then tapped the ball over, causing the Colonels to unsuccessfully dive for it, before recording another kill at the left pin to bring up match point. After Kyla Wilhelm’s 16th and final kill, Homans set up Totcheva to seal the deal.
Wilhelm also recorded 10 digs, Kennedi Bower had 14 kills, 18 digs and two blocks, Kylee Plumb had 19 assists and 19 digs, Sophia Rodeffer matched Plumb’s 19 assists and added 11 digs and Macie Hewitt finished with 27 digs.
Senior Reese Justice was out due to personal reasons for James Wood. Head coach Joey Young said she’ll return on Tuesday against Warren County.
The Colonels could’ve rained on Millbrook’s parade by securing a sweep, as they cut the Pioneers’ third-set lead to 22-21 after a diving dig by Wilhelm and a dump try by Kylee Plumb that led into a Millbrook error.
However, after Millbrook head coach Dave White called timeout, Fauver left the huddle and rattled off three straight kills to give her team a chance. She said she does her best not to overthink in clutch moments.
“[I’m thinking] just about nothing, if I’m being honest,” Fauver said. “I try not to think when it comes down to that, and just trust in myself and trust in my teammates. That helps me not overthink and just play ball.”
The third set was tied at nine initially before two Mood kills, another by Fauver and a Knotts block moved the lead to 15-11. After a Colonels timeout, a Taylor Fishel kill and a Rodeffer ace put points on the board for the home team. Totcheva answered with a kill and Isley Hott notched an ace of her own to make it 18-14.
Two Wilhelm kills helped cut the deficit to 18-17 before a Mood kill and two errors gave Millbrook a four-point lead. Wilhelm scored on three more kill attempts, one of which came after Hewitt nearly fell over on an impressive dig. This made it 22-20 prior to Millbrook’s error.
The Pioneers continued building momentum by establishing a 9-3 lead in the fourth set, thanks in part to two Fauver kills, a kill and an ace from Mood and an ace by Madden.
Kills by Fauver and Totcheva, along with an ace by Homans, advanced the lead to 15-7, before two more points by Mood helped Millbrook go up 19-7.
Totcheva struck to make it 20-8, an error and a Mood kill moved the lead to 22-10 and Fauver again rattled off her team’s last three scores to secure a 16-point victory.
Fauver said Millbrook’s ability to count on several scorers is crucial to its success.
“I think that’s such a big part of our team,” Fauver said. “Just being able to trust everybody on the team in any big moment, just knowing that we’ve got each other’s back [is important].”
James Wood went up 1-0 after the Colonels and Pioneers combined for 11 service errors in the opening set. Rodeffer recorded back-to-back aces to give the Colonels an early 6-5 lead, and Wilhelm tallied her second kill of the match to make it 8-6.
Four combined errors followed to make it 10-8 James Wood before a Bower block made it 13-10. Following a Homans kill, two straight attack errors gave Millbrook a 15-14 lead. Millbrook then committed two of its seven service errors in the set to move the lead to 17-16, only for Kaylee White and Callie Keefer to score and help tie the set at 18.
Trailing 19-18, James Wood went on a 4-0 run that featured a Kylie Putt kill, two Millbrook mistakes and a block by Wilhelm. A service error and an attack error spotted the Colonels the set’s last two points.
Although Wilhelm and Bower have been excellent all season for James Wood, Young said seeing so many players get involved offensively on Thursday was encouraging. Fishel finished with five kills while Putt, Kaylee White and Keefer all had three.
“They’re just growing as volleyball players, and I think they’re growing as leaders on this team,” Young said of the four. “I was really impressed with Taylor tonight because she took some big swings off the left side and the right side, which was really impressive.
“[We’ve improved] with how we’ve spread the ball out to different positions. [The team] just seems to be playing together very well at particular times, and I think in these big matches, we’re just looking to put that together as a whole.”
After committing seven service errors in the first set, Millbrook only tallied three the rest of the way. White said competitive matches can sometimes lead to more mistakes along the service line.
“We want to serve aggressive. Of course, you’re going to get those errors,” White said. “The goal is two to three per set. I think sometimes when the score gets tighter, we actually make more service errors than if we were down or if we were up. We want [our players] to go back there and rip it from the service line. We’ll take the errors as long as we get some aces along the way.”
James Wood went ahead 5-1 in the second set thanks to two early Bower kills. Fauver put two more kills on the board to help tie the set at six, marking the beginning of a consistent back-and-forth.
Neither side obtained a two-point lead again until a Fauver ace made it 14-12 Millbrook. Two Bower kills evened things out again at 14, and the next two-point lead came when Fauver buried a kill to make it 20-18 Millbrook.
James Wood kept fighting, as Fishel and Bower recorded kills to make it 21-20 before Hewitt retracted her dig attempt at the last moment to allow a Millbrook service error to fly out of bounds, tying the set once more.
Fishel then blocked an attack to give James Wood the lead, but Fauver immediately answered to tie the set at 22. After a Millbrook error, Keefer scored at the right pin to give her team a 24-22 advantage, but Totcheva targeted a gap in the James Wood defense to score another point.
After an attack error tied things at 24, Millbrook made two costly mistakes to grant James Wood a 2-0 lead.
With the postseason around the corner, Millbrook still must face Sherando on Tuesday and Musselman (West Virginia) on Wednesday in its last two regular-season matches. While there’s plenty the Pioneers still want to achieve, White said Millbrook’s tight-knit roster has allowed it to find success up to this point.
“Honestly, it’s what they’re doing off the court,” White said. “They all know how to play volleyball, but everything that they’re doing off the court is improving what they’re doing on the court. They definitely have each other’s back. I think even in the tough moments you saw tonight, in this environment and being down, they still came together on every play, every huddle. It’s a great group of kids.”
James Wood will travel to Warren County on Tuesday for its regular-season finale.
— Contact Joe Tuman at jtuman@winchesterstar.com
Follow him on X @jtuman21