James Wood Scores 3-1 Volleyball Win Over Washington

Posted: September 3, 2015
By ROBERT STOCKS
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — With seven new players joining James Wood’s varsity volleyball team, the Colonels appear to be somewhat of a work in progress on the court.

The Colonels are still finding their rhythm and adjusting to some of the new players’ style of play with seven returning players from last year’s team that finished as the Group 4A state runner-up.

And while it might take a few more matches for the Colonels to mesh on the court, the winning results remain the same.

James Wood junior outside hitter Taylor Heishman made a match-high 18 kills to lead the Colonels to a 3-1 (25-19, 25-14, 23-25, 26-24) non-district win over Washington (W.Va.) at Donald H. Shirley Gymnasium on Wednesday night.

The Colonels, who improved to 4-0, played all 14 players against the Patriots.

Senior Emma Montgomery had a team-high six blocks, junior setter Megan Hillyard had a match-high 22 assists and junior libero Elizabeth Salata made a team-high seven digs.

“We’re a brand new team and we have a lot of new people and I think our biggest thing is just connecting right now,” said Hillyard, who only played in the first and fourth set. “I think we did that really well tonight, especially when things got tight.”

The Colonels won the first two sets with relative ease but needed to battle to close out the Patriots in the fourth.

Heishman’s back-to-back kills put the Colonels ahead 19-14, forcing a Washington timeout and seemingly putting James Wood well on its way.

From there however, the Patriots put together 7-1 run capped by a kill from Hayleigh Bradley and a block from Paris Sokel followed by an errant hit by James Wood that put Washington on top 21-20, forcing Colonels first-year coach Stephen Reaves to call timeout.

The Patriots stretched their lead to 23-20 after a bump by Abigail Lesznar followed by a push from Bailey Funk that sailed just over the Colonels’ front row.

Down by three, James Wood answered with four straight points, getting back-to-back kills from Jessica Putnam and Kirsten Mullin followed by a pair of hitting errors by the Patriots to take a 24-23 lead.

On match point, Lesznar’s kill kept the Patriots alive, but Montgomery’s block evened the score. Hillyard capped the 6-1 run by the Colonels with an ace on match point to close out the victory.

“One thing that stood out was our drive to win,” said the 6-foot-1 Heishman, who has moved from middle to outside hitter this year. “We let a couple points slip, but no matter what the difference was in the score we always came back. We always wanted to fight, we pushed for the next point and to win the next ball.”

Washington pulled away from an 11-11 tie in the third set with a 7-2 run capped by consecutive kills from Carson Raddish (six kills) and Bradley (five kills).

The Colonels trailed by as many as six after a kill by Sokel pushed the Patriots’ lead to 23-17. James Wood responded and senior Sidney Furr’s service point capped a 6-1 run by the Colonels that cut the deficit to 24-23.

On set point, Cameron Payne’s block clinched the 25-23 win for the Patriots.

Payne led the Patriots with five kills and a match-high seven blocks.

“We had good teamwork from Cameron Payne and Carson Raddish,” said Washington coach Shimika Vrobel. “We’ll continue to move forward and it’s exciting for the future.”

A strong service game carried the Colonels in the second set. Five different James Wood players had aces in the second set and Heishman, Salata and Abigail Fergus each had one during a 12-2 Colonel run that turned a tie score (at 5-all) into a 17-7 advantage. The Colonels led by as many as 12 before Putnam’s kill closed out the second set 25-14.

Heishman’s play at the net carried the Colonels in the opening set. She had four kills and a block and was one of five James Wood players to record at least one kill in the first set.

Leading 21-19, the Colonels closed out the opening set with four straight points from four different players. Sophomore Morgan Biggs had a kill, Salata followed with an ace, and freshman Taylor Robinson and Montgomery closed the set with consecutive spikes.

Reaves said he wanted to get some of his reserves more court time against the Patriots.

“We wanted to work some other kids in and we need our bench to be balanced,” Reaves said. “We have a strong bench but we haven’t gotten them a lot of playing time. That causes some changes in the game but we need to know what we’re doing bad in order to fix it.

“I was surprised the fourth set was so close but Washington played well and our kids closed it out in the end. That builds character in the team and that’s what we need.”

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