Colonels Roll Over Pioneers

Posted: October 9, 2013
By KEVIN TRUDGEON

WINCHESTER — From the wall of pink ribbons on the gym divider to the pink balloons floating behind the team benches, there was no question that Tuesday’s volleyball match between James Wood and Millbrook had a little something extra to it.

Celebrating the fifth year of their annual Dig Pink Match, the Colonels wore special pink jerseys, honored friends and loved ones during player introductions and even held raffles between sets to help raise money for breast cancer awareness.

Oh, and they also put on a show for their pink-clad fans.

On a night when they saw their fundraising total reach $4,073, the Colonels rode a strong performance at the service line to a 3-0 (25-15, 25-7, 25-11) over the visiting Pioneers at Donald H. Shirley Gymnasium.

“I think just the whole cause got us really excited and we just really wanted to come out and show what we’re about and how excited we were for Dig Pink,” said James Wood junior Abbye Prelip. “It’s a great event that we’re so happy to do every year.”

With the way things went on the court for the Colonels (13-3, 2-0 Northwestern District), they might want to wear pink in all of their matches.

James Wood built big leads in all three sets and totaled 20 aces on the night against a Millbrook team that never looked comfortable along the back row.

The Pioneers (2-8, 0-3) actually had the first two aces of the match — both coming from sophomore outside hitter Imani Major as Millbrook took an early 7-4 lead in the first set — but the service line would not be their friend the rest of the way.

Beginning with a 7-0 run keyed by the serving of junior outside hitter Savannah Yost midway through the first set, the Colonels peppered the Pioneer defense with jump serves and floaters all night long.

In the third set alone James Wood had 12 aces, including a run of five straight from junior libero Ally Iden (team-high eight overall), and six different Colonels recorded at least one ace in the victory.

“I’ve always believed in putting pressure on another team’s passing, that’s the quickest way to get a team out of their system,” said James Wood coach Jill Couturiaux. “We believe in aggressive serving. It’s something we work on daily.

“The nice thing is our bench is so deep with consistent, strong servers that any player I put in is going to put pressure on opposing team’s serve receive.”

Big runs at the service line were a trend throughout the match, with James Wood rattling off 5-0 and 6-0 runs in the second set, behind two aces from Iden and three from sophomore Emma Montgomery, respectively, and 5-0 and 7-0 spurts in the third set.

“Serve receive has been tough all season for us,” said Millbrook coach Ashley Sutphin. “Whatever server was paired up with that rotation it just worked out for them.

“We just have to work on our coverage in the rotation and work on our passes and not so much relying on falling to get the ball. We need to move our feet better.”

The Pioneers’ latest lead of the match came at 9-8 in the first set after one of Major’s team-high four kills and they could never seem to put together a strong-serving run of their own.

A kill from junior Ashley Humphrey (three kills) was followed by back-to-back hitting errors by the Colonels midway through the second set, but Montgomery fired a kill off the block to give James Wood back the serve and three more aces quickly followed.

“We really come together when we get an exciting kill or an exciting ace,” said Prelip, who finished off the third set with an ace off the top of the net. “We didn’t really come out serving strong, but we talked it over and really started to get going [in the second and third set].”

Junior Lindsey Painter finished with a match-high eight kills and the Hillyard sisters of Ashley (six kills) and Megan totaled 10 assists apiece in the win.

The night was a resounding success on all fronts for the Colonels, who have raised over $13,000 since they started five years ago, and Couturiaux was quick to thank all those involved.

“Five years ago I started doing it and trying to get the community to believe in this cause is something that’s not hard to do,” Couturiaux said. “So many people are affected, they either know someone with breast cancer or know someone who has gone through the fight, so I think it’s something a lot of people can relate to. And it’s nice to play for something greater than a district win.

“We have so many supportive parents and so many supportive community members who just give willingly and generously in order to make this happen. It’s definitely not a one-person thing, it’s not just the varsity team, it really is a James Wood community to make this all happen.”

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