Raiders Sweep Wood In Conference Volleyball Final

Posted: November 8, 2013
By JERRY HOLSWORTH
Special to The Winchester Star

LEESBURG — It was a difficult night for James Wood’s volleyball team which traveled to Leesburg Thursday to play Loudoun County in the Conference 21 championship.

The Raiders (26-0) are not only the defending state champs, but they’ve won four of the last six state titles.

And the Raiders showed their championship form, defeating the Colonels 25-3, 25-10, 25-16.

The opening set was an exhibition of near-perfect volleyball by Loudoun County, which wasted little time in taking the momentum against the Colonels.

Lindsey Painter did give the Colonels (22-4) the lead to start the set, hammering home a kill to put Wood up 1-0. The Raiders responded with a furious 13-0 run, featuring their huge front line.

“Our team came out really strong and we were prepared for everything they do,” Raider coach Jenica Brown said. “I really stressed that we needed to work really hard if we expected to win this match. We expected James Wood to be good on defense, and they certainly were.”

Raider hitters Taylor Borup (10 kills) and Jane Feddersen (10 kills, six blocks) took turns pounding the ball into the Wood defense. Ashley Hillyard finally got the serve back for the Colonels with a kill, and the two sides exchanged points.

“We struggled with every aspect of our game in the first set,” Hillyard said.

But when Raider Kelsey Anderson stepped to the service line, it began an 11-0 run that left Wood in a state of shock.

“We just didn’t show up to play tonight,” Colonel coach Jill Couturiaux said. “We just checked out mentally. I’m not going to make excuses though. All we can hope for is that we’ve learned from this, and play strong next week and hopefully see them again.”

Things didn’t change much in the second set as two kills by Borup and a pair of blocks by Feddersen left Wood trailing 6-0. The Colonels rallied briefly after another kill by Painter, but a deadly pattern was developing. For each point Wood managed to score, the Raiders answered with a flurry of kills and blocks that left the Colonels even farther behind.

Loudoun County got the set-winner when a kill attempt by Wood sailed long.

With everything going against the Colonels and the Raiders seemingly able to score points in buckets, it looked as though Wood was about to be sent home without even a hope of competing with the state champs.

Then, at least for a little while, things changed.

After Loudoun County got the first point of the third set, Colonel senior Molly Tierney responded with a kill, and Brandi Griffith followed with a pair of aces to put Wood up 3-1. After two miscues at the net, Wood pulled ahead 5-1, and it looked like the Colonels might be heading toward a victory in the third set.

That was no small feat, since the Raiders have only lost one set all year and have won 44 matches in a row dating back to last season.

“We started passing the ball better and we started finding some shots on offense,” Couturiaux said.

The Raiders rallied and narrowed Wood’s lead to 7-6 after a kill by Raider hitter Emily Knowles, but the Colonels got kills from Painter and freshman Leilani Burch to hold on to a 9-7 lead.

“You have to be really impressed with James Wood,” Brown said. “To come back like that in the third set was impressive. I just thought that we worked really hard out there to come out on top. They graduated a lot of players from last year’s team and they lost their go-to girl [Katie Houser] for the season. To see them here in the regionals and playing a tough as they are is a real credit to them.”

It took the Raiders 21 exchanges to get their first lead, 11-10, but it proved to be the turning point in the set. Although the Colonels fought desperately to keep up with the powerful Loudoun County front line, in the end it proved a forlorn hope as the Raiders finished the set and the match with a 3-1 run.

“I was really proud of the way we picked things up in the last set,” Hillyard said. “This is a learning experience for us. They are a really great team. We need to put this behind us for now and get ready for our next match Tuesday. We have to win that one if we want to advance.”

Loudoun County will host Fauquier next Tuesday in the first round of the 4A North Region tournament. The Colonels will travel to Courtland for their opening round match.

Painter was the top scorer for the Colonels with 10 kills, five of which came in the third set.