James Wood Volleyball Cruises To 3-0 Sweep Of Park View

Posted: November 5, 2013
By JERRY HOLSWORTH
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Northwestern District champ James Wood took care of business Monday in the quarterfinals of the Conference 21 Tournament, defeating Park View easily 3-0 (25-16, 25-18, 25-17).

“There was a little added pressure [Monday],” said Colonel hitter Lindsey Painter. “These are the types of matches where if you lose your season is over. I thought we handled it well though.”

The Patriots (1-12) gave the Colonels (21-3) some help by committing 13 service errors, but Wood hitters Painter, Ashley Hillyard, and Leilani Burch, as well as servers Brandi Griffith and Savannah Yost, made a huge contribution to help their team win handily.

“I thought that we played well,” said Colonel setter and Northwestern District Player of the Year Ashley Hillyard. “I thought that we were pretty consistent with our serving and our passing. They tipped the ball a lot at the net, and we haven’t seen that a lot. That caused some problems.”

The Colonel trio of Painter, Hillyard and Burch combined for 26 kills, while Griffith and Yost hammered home seven aces against the Park View defense.

The Patriots took an early 2-1 lead in the first set, but Painter responded with three straight kills to give Wood the lead and the Colonels would never trail again in the match.

Wood followed Painter’s lead and began to slowly, but systematically, build an insurmountable lead. When Painter wasn’t smashing the ball past the Park View defense, Hillyard, Burch, Taylor Heishman and Molly Tierney were coming up with big kills..

“I was really excited out there,” Painter said. “It was our first match in conference play, and I think the whole team was excited by getting to this tournament and getting the regular season behind us.”

Painter added two blocks to her five kills in the first set and Hillyard had a pair of kills. Ally Iden got the set winner with an ace, the last of four aces by the Colonels in the opening set.

“We served aggressively tonight and I thought we did well there,” said Colonel coach Jill Couturiaux. “We wanted to get in here and get the job done, then go home and get some rest for [tonight].”

With Wood dominating play, Couturiaux decided to show off her deep bench and used her reserves for another decisive victory in the second set.

“We definitely have some depth to our roster,” Couturiaux said. “We have some girls who can step in and get an ace for us or a kill right off the bat. That’s something that is nice to have.”

The Colonels jumped ahead 2-0 thanks to ace by Burch and service error by the Patriots. Park View’s trouble putting the ball in play from the service line was particularly evident early. The Patriots had three service errors in the first six exchanges of the set.

If Park View had any hope of overcoming such a poor start, three consecutive aces by Yost left no doubt that the night belonged to the Colonels.

Hillyard, who splits time between setter and outside hitter, remained in the set with the reserves as a hitter and contributed two kills to the Colonel victory. Emma Montgomery also got into the act with a pair of kills and Painter, despite being used sparingly, got three kills in the set.

Wood got the set winner when Park View hitter Kristen Perkins’ kill attempt fell short.

Thanks to a kill by Heishman and a pair of aces by Hillyard, the Colonel jumped ahead 4-0 in the final set and never looked back. Hillyard added another four kills to her match total of nine in the set, and Painter scored on two kills to finish the night with team-high 11 kills.

Patriot setter Emilee Peirson led Park View with six kills.

“Our team has come a long way since the beginning of the season,” said Park View coach Kendall Beebe. “We really enjoyed playing James Wood. They have a really strong team and it was a good experience for our girls to see how we matched up with them. Emilee, our setter, had a great match and is definitely the MVP for our team this season.”

Besides Hillyard and Painter, Burch had a good night with seven kills and Griffith proved to be a wizard at the service line for Wood with five aces.

The victory sets up a semifinal match with Heritage (11-2) tonight at Wood. The winner will advance to play the winner of Loudoun County and Woodgrove in the Conference 21 finals on Thursday and is guaranteed a berth into the 4A North Region Tournament.

“I think that we’ll be ready for Heritage,” Hillyard said. “We got to see a little bit of how their district plays [Monday].”