Wood Volleyball Pulls Away From Handley, 3-1

Posted: October 16, 2013
By KEVIN TRUDGEON

WINCHESTER — As if first place in the Northwestern District and early area bragging rights were not enough, the James Wood volleyball team had a little extra incentive going for it Tuesday night.

The last time the Colonels had faced rival Handley on their home court, the Judges handed them their only district loss of the season — and on their Senior Night no less.

So it’s safe to say that there was no shortage of motivation for James Wood when Handley returned to Donald H. Shirley Gymnasium for the first time this season, and the Colonels made sure things went differently this time around.

Despite some uncharacteristic hitting errors in the early going, James Wood took control in the third and fourth sets to pull away from the determined Judges for a 3-1 (25-22, 19-25, 25-20, 25-13) win.

“This was huge,” said James Wood coach Jill Couturiaux about the victory that left her team as the only remaining unbeaten squad in the district.

“We said we had some unfinished business with [Handley]. Even though we had beaten them twice after we lost on Senior Night, it was still the fact that [we lost] on our home court. We like to pride ourselves on the fact that this is James Wood and we expect to be the team walking out of here with the win.”

That was definitely the case Tuesday for the Colonels (15-3, 4-0) thanks to a handful of players who were part of the Senior Night loss last year, and a couple who weren’t.

Junior Ashley Hillyard (match-best 21 assists and 11 kills) made her impact both as a setter and as a hitter, fellow junior Ally Iden (31 digs and four aces) captained the defense from her libero position and junior transfer Lindsey Painter (20 kills) and freshman Leilani Burch (eight kills) provided some much-needed offense on the outside.

Burch specifically came up big in the third set after the Judges had stormed back to take the second set and tie the match 1-1.

A kill from junior Alexis Zygmunt and a James Wood hitting error gave Handley a quick 2-0 lead in the third set, but Burch quickly reversed course for the Colonels.

Starting with a crosscourt smash that was immediately followed with a roll over the block, Burch accounted for five of the next nine points to help stake James Wood to a 9-7 lead.

A kill from senior Liz Grove (team-high eight kills and 11 digs) brought the Judges within one, but Hillyard sent a rocket down the line and senior Molly Tierney found space on a quick set to the middle to spark a 5-1 run that opened up a 14-9 lead.

Handley would never get closer than three points the rest of the way, with Painter clinching the set with a blast off the Judges’ block that sailed into the bleachers, and the fourth set followed a similar trend.

A couple early kills from Grove and fellow senior Semefa Tettegah (five kills and 13 digs) helped Handley keep things close, but a nifty push to an open space on the floor by Colonel junior Savannah Yost (four aces) gave the serve to James Wood at 9-7 and kicked off a 13-4 run that ended any hopes of the Judges forcing a fifth set.

Hillyard closed out the set, and the match, with back-to-back kills, much to the delight of a boisterous home crowd.

“We made a lot of errors [in the first two sets] and Handley played really well, but we were able to pull through in the next two,” Hillyard said. “Our defense played really well tonight, Ally had a great game. That helped keep us in it and we just tried to work on reducing our errors [as the match went along].”

The Colonels were not alone in feeling like they didn’t play their best brand of volleyball.

Aside from a strong showing in the second set when they tallied 12 of the first 15 points to build a commanding lead and a big 7-1 run that brought them to within one late in the first set, Handley (6-7, 3-1) struggled to find consistency with their attack.

Setters Allie Hoffman and Nicole Smith combined for 24 assists, but the Judges’ offense looked out of sync for much of the match.

“We just had a lot of trouble adjusting, which is usually something we’re pretty good at because we have a lot of different hitters on the team so we’re used to changing things up depending on how they’re serving to us,” Grove said. “We just couldn’t get the passing, setting and hitting all together.”

Junior Alexis Zygmunt had three kills and 15 digs and senior libero Molly Mintschenko had 14 digs and a pretty kill off a standing swing that just managed to roll over the top of the net and fall to clinch the second set, but it was not enough.

James Wood finished with 15 aces on the night and got contributions up and down the roster to avenge last year’s home loss.

“This was definitely the most intense match I’ve every played in,” said Burch, who admitted to being a little nervous in the beginning. “It felt great to be able to contribute to a big win like this against one of our biggest rivals.”

The result was not what Handley coach Lindsay Cole was looking for, but she thought that her team showed it can hang in there with the Colonels and hopes to turn the tables back on the Judges’ home court.

“It’s definitely going to be big [when James Wood travels to play Handley on Oct. 31],” Cole said. “it’s going to be on our home court and it will be our Senior Night. We’re senior loaded — we have six seniors —so I think that will definitely give us some momentum and it will also kind of show us where we are [going into] conference play as we finish up the regular season.”

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