Wolverines Sweep Wood Volleyball

Posted: September 18, 2015
By JERRY HOLSWORTH
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Woodgrove swept James Wood in three sets, winning 25-16, 25-19, 26-24 in Thursday night’s Conference 21A volleyball match at Donald H. Shirley Gymnasium on Friday night.

“They’re really competitive,” Colonel hitter Leilani Burch said. “We watched them when they played Sherando, and we knew what to expect from them. We knew it was going to be tough to beat them.”

The Wolverines (6-4, 2-1 conference) used a deep bench, getting points from eight different players, to overpower the Colonels every time they were able to make a run.

Oddly enough, the first set, which Wood led for much of the way, was also the one that the Wolverines won by the largest margin.

The Colonels (6-2, 1-1 conference) jumped ahead 6-2 thanks to a pair of kills by Ashanti Day, a kill by Taylor Robinson and an ace by Elizabeth Salata, but Woodgrove was able to slowly chip away at Wood’s lead.

“This was a great win on the road for us,” Woodgrove coach Carmel Keilty said. “Wood is a real quality team. I’m real pleased to come out of here with a win.”

Wolverine hitter Ashton Marquart tied the score 12-12 with an ace, and seven exchanges later Jessica Hornyak gave Woodgrove its first lead, 16-15, with a hard kill past the Colonel defense.

Woodgrove finished with a 10-0 run to finish off Wood. Sarah Root got the set-winner with a kill.

“We just needed to be patient, and work through the kinks,” Keilty said. “It’s still early in the season, and we’ve played three conference matches so I think that the kids have already accomplished a lot at this point. Hopefully, we can carry this on.”

The second set proved to be the Wolverines’ most dominant performance of the night as they jumped ahead early 3-1 and never trailed. Marquart led Woodgrove with three kills, and Kristen Mathews and Root added two apiece.

Wood didn’t help itself by committing six service errors over the first two sets.

Facing a sweep, the Colonels redoubled their effort in the third set, and nearly sent the match into a fourth set.

Taylor Heishman, who had been limited to just four kills in the first two sets, exploded for four kills in the first 10 exchanges to give Wood a 6-4 lead.

The Colonels built a 10-5 lead, but the Wolverines came roaring back behind the play of Mathews and Hornyak. Mathews scored on three kills, and Hornyak added another to help Woodgrove cut Wood’s lead to 12-11.

“I thought our kids were able to read the other side of the court and played very hard when they were challenged like that,” Keilty said. “We saw the openings and made some smart plays at the end.”

A kill by Mathews and another by Marquart gave Woodgrove its first lead at 13-12. Despite a desperate effort by Wood, the Wolverines never trailed again. Woodgrove got the set and match-winner when a kill attempt by Heishman fell short.

“The pressure really built up as the set went along,” Burch said. “I thought that we had the intensity in that set and knew what to do, but in the end we didn’t play like we had earlier, and we just gave it away.”

Heishman led the Colonels with seven kills. Burch added five kills and an ace, and Robinson contributed three kills and an ace for Wood.

“Woodgrove passes very well and they also hit very well,” Colonel coach Stephen Reaves said. “We didn’t do as good of job of serving as we usually do. We had 10 service errors. We’re also working on becoming better hitters. We’re being tested right now. We know what we need to do to get better, we just have to stay with it.”

Marquart led Woodgrove with seven kills and an ace. Mathews added six kills and three aces, and Root finished with six kills and two blocks for the Wolverines.

The Colonels travel for a non-district match at Williamsport (Md.) on Monday.