Wood Volleyball Sweeps Sherando

Posted: October 2, 2013
By KEVIN TRUDGEON

WINCHESTER — They may not have put forth their best performance, but the James Wood volleyball team showed that it had plenty of composure and perseverance Tuesday night.

Hosting Sherando in both team’s Northwestern District opener, the Colonels found themselves locked in back-and-forth battles in each of the first two sets.

But where some teams may have stumbled, James Wood rose to the occasion, using decisive late runs to pull out each set and spark a 3-0 (25-20, 25-23, 25-16) over the visiting Warriors at Donald H. Shirley Gymnasium.

“We definitely struggled to get into a rhythm the first two sets, we were flat and we had a tremendous amount of hitting errors, more than we’ve had in a long time, and Sherando took advantage of that,” said James Coach Jill Couturiaux.

“But with that in mind, I think the girls maintained their composure, they never hit the panic button and they found a way to finish out the sets.”

That was certainly the case in a first set that saw eight ties and five different lead changes, the last coming at 20-20.

James Wood (11-3, 1-0 Northwestern) trailed early, a trend that would continue throughout the match, but rode the hot hand of junior Lindsey Painter to a 16-13 lead.

Running a 6-2 offense that keeps three hitters on the floor at all times, the Colonels spread the ball around — five different players recorded kills in the first 15 points — but Painter was the horse, using her 6-foot-2 frame to get up and over the Warrior block for five of her team-best 17 kills on the night.

But just as it has all season, Sherando (6-6) refused to give in.

Relying on a scrappy defensive effort led by libero Erica Scully and fellow junior Erin Magalis, the Warriors never allowed the deficit to get any bigger and slowly chipped away at the lead.

Freshman Mackenzie Cornwell and sophomore Kelsey Singhas recorded kills from the outside and a James Wood hitting error gave Sherando its first lead since early in the set.

It would also be the last.

Beginning with a kill from senior Molly Tierney to tie the score at 20-20, the Colonels proceeded to score the final six points off a pair of aces from junior Ashley Hillyard (10 kills and 20 assists), a shared block of Singhas by Tierney and fellow senior Brandi Griffith, and back-to-back Warriors errors to clinch the set.

“We’re so close and we all know how to pick each other up after we fall sometimes,” said sophomore Emma Montgomery, who finished with a team-high four blocks. “This was an important match and it’s great to pull out a win in our district opener.”

The late-set heroics were on display again in the second set as James Wood another deficit with a dominating run.

Sherando led 16-10 midway through the set and still held a 22-19 lead after a Colonel hitting errors, but would only manage one more point the rest of the way.

Two Painter kills sandwiched around a lift call on the Warriors tied the score at 22-22 and, after a block by junior Michelle Baker and senior Whitney Dellinger gave Sherando back the lead briefly, James Wood finished off the set in impressive fashion.

Another Painter kill (she had seven in the set) tied the score again, an ace from libero Ally Iden that just clipped the back line made it set point and a kill off a quick set to Montgomery in the middle gave the Colonels a commanding 2-0 lead.

“It’s definitely difficult to be in the lead for a long time like that [in the second set] and then see them come back,” Cornwell said. “We played really well, but you have to give them credit, they did a great job coming back.”

A second straight loss late in the set seemed to deflate the Warriors, who fell behind 11-3 in the third set and never really challenged to extend the match, falling behind by as much as 12 before losing 25-16.

Yet despite the sweep, Ashby was encouraged by what he saw from his young squad.

“It’s a tough environment to play in, but I think as a team I feel like we played well,” Ashby said. “I thought we touched a lot of balls that maybe people didn’t think we were going to, but James Wood’s a good team. I’d just like to have a couple back, especially in that second game.”

A night after playing one of their best matches of the season in a sweep of defending Maryland Class 3A champion North Hagerstown, Couturiaux admitted that the Colonels came out sluggish, but she was happy with how they responded when faced with a little adversity.

“We try to have high-pressure situations at practices and try to mimic game-like situations for them so that whenever they are in those situations, they do have some comfort in their performance,” Couturiaux said. “It’s good experience for them.”

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