Posted: October 16, 2012
By JERRY HOLSWORTH
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — In a non-district match with Washington (W.Va.) Monday, James Wood got to show off its amazing depth in front of its home crowd.

The Colonels got points from 10 different players in a three-set romp 25-20, 25-13, 25-7 over the Patriots.

“We got to let our players play some positions that they don’t usually play,” Colonel coach Jill Couturiaux said. “That helps build confidence, and helps develop our team depth.”

Wood started slow in the opening set, but was never really in danger of losing the set.

Washington jumped ahead early 12-6 and held tenaciously to its lead until midway through the set. But the inspired play of Colonel sophomore outside hitter Katie Houser brought the Colonels back and when they eventually took the lead at 16-15 they never trailed again in the match.

“We’ve had a few days off and we had a slow start,” Colonel junior Catherine Holliday said. “Coach Couturiaux kept telling us to pick it up, and once we did that things began to work for us.”

With Wood trailing 12-8, Houser ripped off three straight kills to narrow Washington’s lead to 12-11. Seven exchanges later, with the Colonels trailing 14-15, Houser hammered home two more kills to put Wood up for good. She finished the set with seven kills.
If the Patriots thought that Houser was going to be their most challenging problem, the Colonel bench, as well as several other Wood starters, gave Washington a painful lesson in the importance of depth in the second set.

Wood jumped ahead 4-0 in the second set and never trailed. This time, though, the Colonels got points from six other players besides Houser. The most pleasing addition to Wood’s offense was the return of Holliday, who had been nursing an injury.

“I’ve been back from my injury in practice, and I’ve been in a little bit in a couple of games,” Holliday said. “But this was the first time I was in there for anything like a full set. Matches like this are very important for our play in district play. It helps to work on things and try different combinations. To find out new things that will work for us will really help us down the stretch.”

Holliday entered play midway through the set and immediately sent three hard kills past the Patriot defense. Outside hitter Tarah Wampler also had a solid second set, adding to her two first set kills with another pair in the second set. The Wood senior also scored one of the Colonels’ six aces during the set.

Middle blocker Erica Hepner also got into the act with a block and two aces and Brandi Griffith gave a hint of things to come in the final set with a kill. Houser, Kelby Jackson, and Allyson Iden also scored with aces in the second set.

The final set was a near perfect demonstration of Colonel dominance as Wood jumped ahead 15-1. Griffith led the way with three kills and a block, but Holliday wasn’t far behind with thee kills too.

“Every girl on our team has something to offer when it comes to getting a win,” Couturiaux said. “We showed that tonight. Everyone made a contribution to this win. The pace of this match was very slow and, at times, that can cause our players to get a little lax out there. But we didn’t do that tonight and that showed in the final set. That was really good to see.”

With Wood holding a big 16-2 lead, Houser gave the crowd a dramatic demonstration of why she’s not just a kill specialist. The Colonel sophomore rattled off three straight aces against a confused and intimidated Washington defense that put Wood up 19-2. With the Patriots reeling, Griffith got the match-winner.

“That was pretty cool,” Griffith said. “ I haven’t done that in a while. It’s really fun to get that point. I really like my job of coming off the bench and helping the team out when they need it.”

Although Houser led all Colonels with 11 kills and five aces, several Wood players had exceptional nights. Holliday, after sitting out one-and-a-half sets, finished the night with six kills. Griffith came off the bench to produce four kills and a block.

Wampler had four kills and three aces for Wood, and Ashley Hillyard scored on three kills and an ace despite playing the final set as the Colonel setter.

Washington was led by Beata Leinhard’s five kills, four of which came in the first set.

“We have a lot of injured players and that has hurt us lately,” Patriot coach Tammy Palmer said. “We came out strong in the first set, but after that we just kind of fell apart. Wood had a very good team, and this is always to tough place to play.”