State Bound: James Wood Volleyball Knocks Off No. 1 Salem

Posted: November 15, 2013
By KEVIN TRUDGEON
The Winchester Star

SALEM — Last year was supposed to be the high-water mark for a James Wood volleyball program that reached the state tournament for the first time in over a decade.

It turns out it was a just a sign of things to come.

For the second straight year the Colonels punched their tickets to states following a 3-1 (25-17, 25-17, 16-25, 25-14) win over Salem in the 4A North Region semifinals Thursday evening, and they’ve already surpassed last year’s historic run.

“For us to make it to this level … we’re advancing to the state semifinals, last year we lost in the quarters … for me as a coach the feeling is hard to put into words, I’m just so proud of these girls,” said James Wood coach Jill Couturiaux. “They’ve been working hard since Aug. 5 and I really wanted it for them tonight.”

She wasn’t alone.

Each Colonel point was met by a roar of approval from the fans that made the three-hour trip down I-81, and there was plenty to cheer about.

Taking on a Spartans team that dispatched Northwestern District-rival Handley in four sets in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, James Wood announced early on that things would be going differently in the semifinals.

Junior Savannah Yost had the first of her match-best eight aces in an early 5-0 run in the first set that staked James Wood (24-4) to a 6-2 lead it would never relinquish.

“We’d read about how [Salem] had slow starts at times throughout the season, so we wanted to take advantage of that and be aggressive from the get go and we were,” Couturiaux said.

When the Colonels weren’t controlling things from the service line — they finished with 13 aces in the match — they were frustrating Salem (16-9) with their variety of attackers and scrappy defense.

After the Spartans closed to within three midway through the first set, James Wood responded with a 5-1 run that included kills from junior Ashley Hillyard (10 kills and 18 assists), senior Brandi Griffith and freshman Taylor Heishman and Salem never got closer than five the rest of the way.

“I think there was a little bit of stage fright and nerves,” said Spartans coach Beth Denton. “Being at this level is so exciting and we were more than ready for it, but we just started out slow and when you’re at the talent level at this point in the [playoffs], there’s no room to start slow.”

Things didn’t get any better for the Spartans in the second set as Yost again keyed a big run with her serve — this time a 10-point spurt that turned a three-point deficit into a 14-7 lead — and the Colonels cruised from there to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the match.

“We pride ourselves on our serves and we try to really throw their middles off because that’s who’s usually their strongest players,” Yost said. “When we serve aggressively they have a hard time running their offense and getting the ball to their big hitters.”

Salem, which dropped the opening set against Handley before rattling off three straight sets on Tuesday, finally found its offense in the third set behind seniors Carleigh Studtmann and Barrett Kemp and managed to avoid a sweep, but it simply delayed the Colonels’ celebration.

Junior outside hitter Lindsey Painter (match-best 16 kills) opened the fourth set with a cross-court rocket and Hillyard caught the Salem defense sleeping with a deceptive dump before junior libero Ally Iden turned in the highlight of the night.

With the score still close early in the set, Iden watched a Spartan shot ricochet off a teammate and sail towards the back wall of the gym.

Wasting no time, Iden took two steps to her left before laying out and managing to just get her hand on the ball and redirect it back towards the court, where Painter sent it back over the net and it landed between two Salem players for a point that drew applause from everyone in the stands.

“Before the match coach told us to play like we would never play this game again, and that means leaving it all out on the court,” said Iden, who finished with a team-best 19 digs.

Iden’s diving save seemed to shift the momentum back to the Colonels permanently and a 6-0 run a few points later, with Yost again dominating from the service line, erased any hopes of a Salem comeback.

The set, and the match, were clinched fittingly by a kill from Hillyard and a pair of aces from Yost, the second of which sent her teammates into a frenzy as they celebrated their biggest victory of the year.

“I think a lot of people may have doubted us coming into the season, but I think we’ve definitely proved that we shouldn’t be doubted,” Iden said. “Our goal was to get back [to the state tournament], now we want to push ourselves even farther.”

James Wood will get a chance to do that on Saturday when they travel to face perennial power Loudoun County in the 4A North Region championship at 7 p.m.. The Raiders, winners of four of the last six state titles, swept the Colonels in the Conference 21 finals last week.

— Contact Kevin Trudgeon at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. on Twitter @WinStarSports1