Millbrook Volleyball Sweeps Colonels

Posted: October 23, 2015
By ROBERT STOCKS
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Millbrook’s volleyball team made sure there wasn’t much drama in the second meeting with James Wood after needing to survive a five-set thriller with the Colonels a little over two weeks ago.

Pioneers senior Taylor Linder had a match-high 10 kills and classmate Imani Major added nine kills and a team-best 12 digs to lead the Pioneers to a 3-0 (25-14, 25-21, 25-22) Conference 21A sweep over James Wood in the Colonels’ Dig Pink match at Donald H. Shirley Gymnasium on Thursday night.

A near-capacity crowd showed up for the Colonels’ eighth annual Dig Pink fundraiser for breast cancer research. But once the match started after each James Wood player held signs during team introductions with names of friends or family members who had battled cancer, Millbrook controlled the entire match to sweep the season series with their Frederick County rival.

“We just really wanted this game tonight,” said Linder, whose team edged James Wood in a hard-fought 3-2 victory in their first meeting at Millbrook on Oct. 6. “We knew that we had to start off pushing points so we could get a quick lead and get into their heads early.”

The Pioneers (17-3, 3-2 confererence, 6-1 Northwestern District) scored in bunches, reeling off five unanswered points to start the match and never trailed in the opening set.

A four-point spurt by Millbrook that included a tip from Major, an errant hit by James Wood, a kill by Abigail Koeller followed by an ace from Jordan Reid put the Pioneers ahead 16-6.

The Pioneers kept the pressure on, getting a pair of blocks from Alexis Weir in a 5-0 run that pushed Millbrook’s lead to 22-8.

James Wood never cut the deficit to less than 10 the rest of the way as Millbrook took the first set, 25-14, after the Colonels’ seventh attack error.

“We were really moving a lot and covering and our offense was on tonight,” Linder added. “We were playing smart and picking spots up.”

James Wood (13-5, 2-2 conference, 4-2 district) never led until Emma Montgomery’s kill put the Colonels ahead 10-9 in the second set.

From there, the set was tied three more times before Millbrook reeled off six straight points around a pair of service errors by both teams. Major had a pair of kills, Weir added two more blocks and Reid capped the run with an ace to stake the Pioneers to a 20-14 lead that forced a James Wood timeout.

The Colonels fought back, getting aces from Leilani Burch and Lizzy Salata (three aces in the match), and cut the deficit down to one after a service error and a violation on Millbrook that made it 21-20.

Millbrook answered with a kill from Linder but a service error by the Pioneers cut the deficit back to one at 22-21.

Millbrook responded with three straight points, a dump from Reid followed by Elizabeth Carroll’s third ace of the set and then a block from Emily Cleveland to close out the second set.

“Even when they were pushing the ball back to us — hitting or pushing — I thought we moved well and played defense well,” said Millbrook coach Carla Milton. “... It was just a great all-around team effort there.”

After four early ties in the third set, Millbrook broke a 6-all tie with a 7-0 run, getting a pair of kills and a block from Weir, an ace from Major, a kill from Linder and capitalized on two attack errors by the Colonels to take a 13-6 lead. Millbrook led by as many as eight, but James Wood fought back to tie at 21 after a kill by Burch.

Major answered with some clutch points, scoring two straight by blasting a kill followed by an ace that put the Pioneers ahead 23-21. After service errors by both teams gave the Pioneers set point, Koeller ended the match with a kill.

Although James Wood forced the Pioneers to go five sets in the first meeting, Burch said the Colonels struggled to handle the Pioneers attack in Thursday’s rematch .

“I think our passing definitely played a huge part in this loss,” said Burch, who led James Wood with seven kills. “We can definitely come back from it but it was not one of our strong passing nights.”

Taylor Robinson and Taylor Heishman added six kills apiece, and Megan Hillyard led the Colonels with 24 assists.

James Wood coach Stephen Reaves said his team just made way too many mistakes — 17 attack errors and eight service errors — against a quality team like Millbrook.

“We did not play well, we did not serve well — we did not do a good job,” Reaves said. “Millbrook did good. They came in our gym during Dig Pink and did their thing. Coach Milton and Millbrook deserves the credit — they did a good job.

“If you want to go to the state tournament you’ve got to beat these [teams] anyway. You’re going to play them all again [in the tournament] and we’ve got to give a better showing. We went to five in our first contest [with Millbrook] and here we get beat in three in our gym.”

The Colonels had signs on the gymnasium walls with slogans like “Block Out Cancer” and “Save the Girls” and cancer survivors were recognized prior to the match and there was also a moment of silence for those who lost their fight against cancer as part of the team’s annual Dig Pink fundraiser.

Since starting its Dig Pink matches back in 2008, the Colonels have raised more than $20,000.

— Contact Robert Stocks at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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