WINCHESTER — James Wood volleyball is no stranger to postseason success, but the four-time defending Class 4 state champions didn’t enter this year’s Region 4D tournament with their typical home-court advantage.
Nonetheless, the North No. 3 seed Colonels overcame the odds to eliminate North No. 2 seed Handley 3-1 (25-19, 25-18, 21-25, 25-9) on Tuesday, improving to 14-6-2 this season. The Judges, who were still without outside hitter Breeze Johnson due to an ankle injury, finished 19-2. James Wood will visit North No. 1 seed Millbrook at 6 p.m. on Thursday.
Senior middle blocker Reese Justice said James Wood isn’t dwelling on regular-season results.
“We know what matters the most,” Justice said. “Our record in the regular season does not define us, and this postseason is what matters to us.”
James Wood was led to victory by its outside-hitting pairing of senior Kyla Wilhelm and sophomore Kennedi Bower, who finished with 16 and 12 kills, respectively.
Wilhelm added eight digs and an ace, Bower had 15 digs, Justice recorded eight kills and two blocks, sophomore libero Macie Hewitt had 11 digs and an ace and senior setter Kylee Plumb played the whole match and tallied 57 assists, four aces and six digs.
Plumb, Bower and senior defensive specialist Kyleigh Bly combined for 37 service points, which first-year head coach Joey Young said was made possible by defensive consistency.
“As a coach, I really pride myself on having a defensive mindset,” Young said. “And so, I was really proud of everyone being disciplined in their defensive spots in the back row, setting the block the right way and just being really sound defensively. We put a lot of time and effort into that.”
After Handley cut the deficit to 2-1 in the third set, James Wood tied the final frame at five thanks to a kill by Bower and an ace by Hewitt.
Another Bower kill tied the set at six and sparked an 8-0 run that put the Colonels ahead 13-6. Bly recorded seven service points during this stretch, Justice recorded four out of five points to put James Wood up 11-6 and Bower buried another kill to cap the run.
Plumb then recorded a first-touch kill when the ball found her at the front of the net, extending the lead to 15-8. Three errors and a Wilhelm kill further added to the lead, causing Handley to call time trailing 19-9.
Already on a 3-0 run, the Colonels scored six unanswered after this break in the action to secure the win. Wilhelm, Kylie Putt and Taylor Fishel each recorded a kill down the stretch, and Putt recorded the match-winning block to send James Wood to the next round. Plumb put together an 8-0 service run to close the match.
“I think serving is one of those things where I know I can control it,” Plumb said. “So if I do my job back there, I’m pretty happy. The last couple games, I wasn’t too happy with my serving, so I was really focused on that tonight.”
Young said he was impressed with how James Wood sealed the deal.
“I saw a team that was able to come together, stay positive and be resilient,” Young said. “We’ve had some other moments this season in local matches where we didn’t come out victorious, but our team found a way to win tonight in the fourth set. In the huddle, we were talking about finishing the match, and they really came out and finished really strong.”
James Wood started the opening set hot, going ahead 10-4 early behind an ace from Plumb and two kills apiece from Wilhelm, Bower and Justice. Another Wilhelm kill made it 12-5 when Handley called its first timeout.
Three kills and two aces from Teagan Braun-Duin helped narrow the Judges’ deficit to 15-13, but three errors and another Wilhelm kill made it 18-14.
Handley head coach Kristen Larson said Braun-Duin has stepped up even more than usual with Johnson sidelined.
“That is a taxing role to have [as an attacker and setter],” Larson said. “She is a point maker, she has 1,000-plus assists in her career, so she has been super productive in that regard. But we had to lean on her a little bit more these last couple games because of the lineup changes that were made. And she has a lot of court awareness, and when things are firing for her, she does really great things.”
Wilhelm struck twice from the left pin to extend the lead to 21-16 before Fishel recorded a kill to force a Judges’ timeout while trailing 22-17. After kills by Braun-Duin and Sadie Bailey, Handley committed three straight errors to conclude the first set.
Handley was even with James Wood early in the second frame, as the two were tied five times until Justice recorded a kill to make it 7-6. Some errors and another point from Justice helped the Colonels get ahead 11-7, and another Plumb ace helped extend the lead to 14-10.
Down 18-12, Handley went on a 3-0 run behind two kills from Bailey and a block by Joy Walrath. Young called time to stall Handley’s momentum, and the Colonels answered with kills by Justice and Bower that put them up 20-15.
Bly added an ace out of a Handley timeout to make it 21-15, Paige Boone recorded back-to-back kills to cut the Colonels’ lead to 22-18 and a Kyla Wilhelm kill was sandwiched by two Handley errors to conclude the second set.
Wilhelm, who’s stepped into a key role alongside Bower following the graduation of outside hitters Kennedy Spaid and Brenna Corbin, said she’s been comfortable shouldering more of an offensive burden. She also said the Colonels’ ability to answer Handley’s own bursts of offense was important on Tuesday.
“It’s been good. I’ve played outside before, so it’s not completely new,” Wilhelm said. “I think just knowing the last point doesn’t matter and that we’re still going to go out like we know how to, and just stay strong [was important]. We were just trying to do that and trying to mix up where we’re going [with our attacks].”
Handley came out firing in set three, jumping out to an 8-2 lead behind three of Bailey’s 15 kills. Kills by Boone and Ava Borkon helped the Judges reach 10 points, but back-to-back Wilhelm kills helped cut the deficit to 10-8.
Larson said Bailey was motivated to light a spark with Johnson sidelined, and added that Bailey left everything on the court in her final match at Handley.
“I think she took a lot of that on herself; she wanted to be the one to kind of take charge in that regard,” Larson said of Bailey’s play without Johnson. “I think she carried that burden a little harder than maybe she needed to tonight, but it was also her senior year and she really wanted to go after it. I saw some great things out of her all season long. She’s done a great job.”
Bailey recorded two more kills to give her team a 13-8 lead, a kill and a block by Fishel made it 13-11 and Bailey and Wilhelm each recorded another point to bring up a 14-12 score.
After several errors, Bower hammered a kill home and Wilhelm got the ball to skim over the net, shortening the deficit to 18-16. A Boone kill, a Braun-Duin block and a light tap over the net by Borkon moved the lead to 21-17 before James Wood called time after committing an attack error.
Another kill by Bailey brought up set point, but James Wood rattled off a 3-0 run to keep things interesting. After Larson called time, Walrath blocked her second ball of the night to give Handley a set victory.
Larson said she told her team “all is not lost” and that there are positives that can be taken from their 19-2 finish.
“There are lessons to be learned from this, there are memories to be made,” Larson said. “I told them that I wouldn’t be [coaching] if it was not for a positive volleyball experience I had when I was in high school. Those girls, I’m still friends with, I still talk to them, and that has kind of molded my path in my life. So I hope, even though this was disappointing, they can take something from this. We lose four seniors [to graduation] and next year, the rest of the girls are going to come back wanting to work even harder for them.”
Young said his team’s spirit late in the third helped set James Wood up for its commanding final set. However, he noted he wants to see more urgency early in sets where the Colonels have a chance to win the match.
Young recalled James Wood’s five-set loss to Millbrook on Oct. 22, and said the Colonels’ goal is to match or exceed the energy they brought that day throughout the rest of this postseason run.
“Having the same energy that we had when we played [Millbrook] a couple of weeks ago, and letting that really be our focus as we go forward [is our goal],” Young said. “Being positive, coming out with a lot of energy, being super aggressive and just sticking to the game plan that we have moving forward [is what we’re striving for].”
— Contact Joe Tuman at jtuman@winchesterstar.com
Follow him on X @jtuman21