August 31, 2012
By ROBERT STOCKS

WINCHESTER — James Wood senior libero Kelby Jackson said it was pretty difficult to find a weakness when it comes to the Musselman (W.Va.) High School’s volleyball team following the Colonels’ first match of the year on their home court.

The Applemen, who return all but one player from last year’s team that finished as the Class AAA state runner-up, appeared to be in mid-season form with senior Corisha Smith and junior Taylor Lord leading the way with 19 kills apiece to spoil James Wood’s home opener with a 3-1 (25-20, 25-16, 23-25, 25-15) victory over the Colonels Thursday.
The Colonels (3-1) kept it close in two of the four sets, but Musselman’s all-around game made it tough for James Wood to get much momentum going.

“They definitely have great outsides that can kill the ball and place it wherever it was needed,” said Jackson, who moved from libero to play outside hitter after the Colonels fell behind 2-0. “They were serving aggressive with topspin, and overall they play great defense. They’re a tough team.”

Musselman (1-0) appeared poised for a sweep but committed 13 errors in the third set after totaling 16 in the first two. James Wood capitalized on three straight Applemen mistakes to take control of the third set with a 6-0 run. James Wood’s Erica Hepner had a kill during the run, and senior Emilee Payne capped the run after another hitting error by Musselman with an ace to put the Colonels ahead 20-13.

Despite the hitting errors, Musselman rallied and forced five set points before James Wood junior Brandi Griffith’s kill closed out the third set 25-23.

“We kind of shot ourselves in the foot in that third set, and we just had too many errors,” said Musselman coach Shawn Martz, whose team played without sophomore starting setter Kaitlin Ferretti, who missed the match because of an illness. “We had a nice comeback at the end but it was too little, too late.

“We had too many service errors, a few hitting errors and a few over-passes there in the first half of that set. But overall, I was pretty pleased. We hit .284 as a team and that’s pretty good against a pretty good team.”

After dropping the third set, Musselman took control right away in the fourth, getting three consecutive kills from Smith at the start and then a kill and an ace from Rebecca Kern to take a 6-2 advantage.

The Colonels cut the lead to three after a tip by Katie Houser, but the Applemen reeled off four straight points, getting an ace from Lord in between a pair of errant hits by the Colonels that forced James Wood coach Jill Couturiaux to call timeout.

After the timeout, Musselman’s Kayla Kessler, a 6-foot-1 senior, blocked Hepner to put the Applemen ahead 11-4, and James Wood never cut the deficit to less than three the rest of the way.

“We came out very strong tonight, and we knew this was going to be a big game in a big environment,” said Smith, who also had five aces in the Applemen’s season opener.

James Wood, a Region II semifinalist a season ago, struggled to find an answer for the outside-hitting duo of Smith and Lord.

“Their outsides were difficult to stop,” Couturiaux said. “Their serving was more aggressive than ours. We struggled to pass the ball tonight and that’s usually something that we do pretty well.

“I think it’s tough because this is our first competitive team that we’ve played this season so far. We’ll learn a lot from them and it’s a good measure to try to hang in there with them.”

Smith and Lord combined for 12 kills in the first set alone, helping Musselman overcome 11 ties to pull away to take the opening set 25-20. Both Smith and Lord showed both power and finesse, putting away shots at will or deftly pushing or tipping balls to open spots on the floor. They combined for 21 kills in the first two sets as Musselman took an early 2-0 advantage after taking the second set 25-16.

Facing a 2-0 deficit, Couturiaux said she decided to move Jacksonfrom libero to help the team’s attack.

“She hasn’t played front row this year,” said Couturiaux, whose team opened the season with road wins over Kettle Run, Strasburg and Spotswood. “But she’s a utility player, and she can player wherever she’s needed. It was a risk to pull her from the libero position because she’s in the back row all the time and the chances are high that she’s going to be the one passing the ball or touching the ball on defense.

“I knew we had to make a change because we lost the first two sets, and we had to do something different and that’s just what we went with.”

Houser led the Colonels with eight kills, and Jackson responded with six kills and a team-high 12 digs. Payne and Ashley Hillyard had nine assists apiece, and both Hillyard and Griffith added six kills.

Jackson said she was excited to move from libero to the Colonels’ front line, but she was more pleased that her teammates dug deep to avoid being swept in their home opener.

“That’s the first time I’ve hit outside this year, and I just wanted to win that [set] because I didn’t want to be swept by Musselman,” Jackson said. “It’s one of those things where the team relies on the outside [hitter] so you want to get the job done, and when you do, it’s a great feeling.

“But we have a lot to learn from that team, and when we play them in two weeks, I think we’ll play better. Going against Musselman helps us and it’s going to help improve our game all-around, Playing teams that are stronger is definitely going to help us in the long run with districts.”

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