Wood Volleyball Bounces Back Against Patriots

Posted: September 6, 2013

By ROBERT STOCKS
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — A rebuilding Washington program faced a tough season-opener against a determined James Wood volleyball team looking to rebound from its first loss of the season Thursday.

The end result proved to be the Colonels making quick work of a Washington team that ended up having a brief mid-match workout while being overpowered by James Wood’s potent attack.

The Colonels took the momentum from the start of the opening set en route to a 3-0 sweep (25-7, 25-13, 25-12) over the Patriots at Donald H. Shirley Gymnasium.

James Wood junior outside hitter Lindsey Painter had a team-high 11 kills — playing in just the first two sets — and junior libero Ally Iden and junior setter Ashley Hillyard made sure just about everyone had a hand in the Colonels’ attack.

James Wood (3-1) reeled off 13-unanswered points to take a commanding 15-2 lead in the opening set. Junior Abbye Prelip did much of the damage with five aces from the service line, and Painter chipped in four kills in the Colonels’ run.

Only a service error by Prelip halted the Colonels’ momentum before James Wood reeled off four more points, getting a pair of kills from senior Molly Tierney, one from Hillyard and an ace from Savannah Yost to stretch the lead to 19-3.

After an ace by Hillyard pushed James Wood’s lead to 22-5, Washington first-year coach Andrea Stewart called her second timeout of the set and the Patriot players were doing burpee-like exercises in the corner of the gym.

But the mid-match workout didn’t keep the Colonels from working over the Patriots the rest of the way.

Five different Colonels had kills in the opening set, and Lexi Copley closed it out with a pair of aces for the 25-7 win.

Overall, the Colonels had 11 aces in the opening set.

“I thought we served really well and we only missed three serves the whole match,” said Hillyard, who had a team-high 19 assists. “That consistency really helped us to win the game.”

James Wood turned in a consistent game in almost every phase against a Washington team that struggled to string points together in its opening match.

The Colonels never trailed in the second set, getting five early kills from Painter and then a pair of kills from senior Brandi Griffith (six kills) to take a commanding 14-3 lead that forced a Washington timeout.

The Patriots never cut the Colonels’ lead to less than nine points from there.

While Painter led the attack once again, five different James Wood players had kills in the second set.

Stewart, who took over the Patriots’ varsity team within the last month, said facing quality teams like James Wood will only help her program build for the future.

“It’s been a work in progress and that’s really what this season is for us,” Stewart said. “It’s a rebuilding, work-in-progress year for us. I love when we can play teams that are great like this because it improves and makes us better. They’re a great team, and they flow as a team. They’re running plays and keeping us moving and it’s just a great level of volleyball.”

James Wood coach Jill Couturiaux said her team really responded well after losing its first match of the season at Briar Woods (3-1) on Tuesday night.

“We had a really rough night against Briar Woods and we just played flat as a team, so we really worked hard in practice and talked about the things we wanted to correct,” Couturiaux said. “It felt good to come out and play and the girls definitely had fun tonight and that’s the way it should be.”

Couturiaux got all of her reserves into the action in the third set with Prelip, who had a team-high seven aces, taking over at libero, and Iden showed her all-around game with an early block that put the Colonels ahead 7-5.

Iden also added a pair of kills, the second of which started a 12-0 run by the Colonels that turned a one-point advantage into a commanding 23-10 lead in set three. James Wood closed out the match from there, getting a kill from Hillyard followed by an errant hit by Washington’s Jessi Lagana on the second match point to take the third set 25-12.

Iden said the team needed to regroup after losing to Briar Woods and responded well with a solid effort.

“I think after our loss on Tuesday we were just trying to make a statement and come back from that,” said Iden, who made a team-best 11 digs. “We just had a lot of fun out there.

“We went to the middle, the right side and the outside [with our attack] a lot and just spread it out.”

The Colonels now head to the Third Degree Tournament in Virginia Beach this weekend.

Couturiaux said the tournament features several larger classification schools, including Musselman (W.Va.) — who the Colonels host next Thursday.

“We wanted to strengthen our schedule this year,” Couturiaux said. “We wanted to play some tough teams to prepare for the conference tournament and we’ll be better prepared after seeing that competition.”

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