Handley Volleyball Defeats Colonels, 3-1

Posted: October 30, 2015
By JERRY HOLSWORTH
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — For high school kids, 2011 seems like a lifetime ago, and that was particularly true for Handley’s girls’ volleyball team when it stepped onto James Wood court Thursday for a match with conference playoff implications.

The Judges had not beaten the Colonels on their court since 2011, and seniors Liza Homan and Sarah Snow led a determined Handley team that ended that Wood streak with a 3-1 (25-18, 25-20, 16-25, 25-18) victory.

“It’s always good to beat James Wood,” Snow said. “It’s been a while too, and it was a good feeling. They’re our biggest rival and there are a lot of old grudges between us. It was really special for the seniors tonight.”

The win sets up a showdown Monday with the No. 3 Judges (11-8, 3-2 conference, 5-3 Northwestern District) hosting No. 6 Harrisonburg in the opening round of the Conference 21A tournament. The fifth-seeded Colonels (14-6, 2-3 conference, 5-3 district) will travel that same night to No. 4 Millbrook for their opening round match.

“We really came together tonight,” Judges coach Lindsey Cole said. “We were ready and focused.”

After winning the first two sets, Handley watched as Wood’s Leilani Burch (eight kills, three aces) and Kirsten Mullin (eight kills, two aces) led a dogged comeback in the third set to send the match into a fourth set.

With Handley reeling after Burch smashed six kills past the Judges defense and Mullins adding three more and an ace, Handley looked like a team that had lost its cohesion as the Colonels jumped ahead quickly 4-2 thanks to kills by Mullin, Emma Montgomery (seven kills, three blocks and two aces), and Taylor Heishman (a team-best 10 kills) in the fourth set.

“I think that our communication was just off in the third set,” Homan said. “I think that after the first two sets we started to think that we could take the third set easily. Obviously, that didn’t happen.”

The Judges clawed back in the set and tied the score 4-4 on a kill by Lauren Morris, and the battle was on.

Through the next 15 exchanges, there were seven ties and neither side led by more than one point

With the score tied 11-11, Wood began to slowly, but steadily take charge. A kill and a block by Heishman and an ace by Burch put the Colonels up 15-12.

But with Wood holding the momentum, Homan scored on two kills and a block to rally her Judges and tied the score at 15.

From that point forward, Snow joined Homan at the net and completely dominated Wood for the rest of the set. Snow, who finished the night with six kills, had five of those in the fourth set, four of which came in the final nine exchanges of the match.

“I think at the end of the fourth set we just all came together as a team,” Snow said. “I just try to do what I can to help the team win.”

Homan had three kills and block in the fourth set to finish the night with 10 kills and four blocks. The Judges got the set and match-winner on a Colonel service error.

Handley’s early dominance was highlighted by an amazing 11-0 run — sparked by four kills from Maggie Wise (15 kills for the match) — to begin the second set. Wood did recover, however, narrowing the Handley lead with a 7-0 run when it finally got serve. Wood was led by Montgomery, who scored on two aces and a kill, during the run.

Despite the Colonel rally, Wood never evened the score and the Judges went on to win by four.

Handley’s Lauren Morris finished with seven kills, including three in the critical fourth set, and had three aces.

“This was mainly my fault,” Colonel coach Stephen Reaves said. “I messed with the lineup. This loss in on me. It’s hard for a team to come back from 0-2, but Handley really played well tonight.”