James Wood advances to Conference 21 West volleyball final

Jerry Holsworth Special to The Star

WINCHESTER — James Wood outside hitter Taylor Heishman proved to be too much for Handley on Wednesday. The senior scored on nine kills and had five blocks to lead the Colonels to a 25-11, 25-20, 25-12 sweep of the Judges in the Conference 21 West volleyball tournament.

“This was a very satisfying win,” Colonel coach P.W. Hillyard said. “When you play a team like Handley, you know they’re going to give their best effort. We started out strong, and then one of our starters went down, and I was very proud of the way the girls responded.”

James Wood (19-2) will host Woodgrove (14-8) at 6 p.m. tonight in the championship game with a trip to the regional tournament on the line. The Wolverines upset top-seeded Millbrook 3-1 on Wednesday.

“Playing Woodgrove will be interesting,” Hillyard said. “We’ll just try to play our game and see what happens.”

The Judges (10-10) were in the match through the first 18 exchanges of the first set, but a 13-0 run by the Colonels left Handley behind and it never recovered.

Handley had trouble putting away its kills all night thanks to the play of Heishman at the net. The 6-foot-1 Heishman scored on two kills and a block and her presence helped force the Judges into seven misplayed balls during the run that resulted in Wood points.

“We had a lot of trouble with her ability to block,” Handley coach Lindsey Cole said of Heishman. “We weren’t able to get as many kills as we’re used to. Our offense just wasn’t able to get past what they were doing at the net.”

Wood also continued with its late-season move of Leilani Burch, normally one of the team’s strongest hitters, to libero. Burch’s play dramatically improved Wood’s defense and passing.

“We made a little switch because we realized what we were doing wasn’t working real well for us,” Burch said. “I thought we played a lot more together with the change.”

Leading 23-11, the Colonels closed out the first set on kills by Heishman and Morgan Biggs.

The Colonels kept it going by taking a 5-1 lead to start the second set. Jessica Putnam had a kill and two aces, while Heishman added a kill and a block. Handley fought back and took the lead 8-7. Maggie Wise led the Judges’ rally by scoring on two kills. Mya Mintschenko and Chloe Putnam also had kills.

James Wood retook the lead with kills from Gillian Kleiderlein and Putnam and steadily built the margin.

Handley fought back late in the set. Two kills by Sarah Snow and a wide return by Wood narrowed the Colonel lead to 23-20, but Putnam was able to finish off the Judges with a kill.

Handley had no answers in the third set.

A kill and a block by Heishman, plus a kill each from Putnam and Taylor Robinson put Wood up 5-1.

Kills by Ashanti Day, Putnam, and Kleiderlein expanded the lead to 9-3 and the rout was on.

Heishman’s presence fueled the dominance in the final set. She nailed three more kills and had a pair of blocks. Robinson got the set and match-winner with a kill.

“There was a lot of energy out there tonight,” Heishman said. “I think I was able to read their offense a lot better than I have been in the past. But I also knew that if they got it past me, our back line would be there to dig it out.”

Putnam added seven kills and two aces. After Biggs left the contest with an injury, Kleiderlein and Robinson picked up the slack for the Colonels. Kleiderlein had three kills, all coming in the final two sets, and Robinson scored all four of her kills in the third set.

“Gillian hasn’t had a lot of playing time this year,” Hillyard said. “But she came in and she did what we asked her to do.”

Martina Malvezzi led the Judges with five kills and three aces. Wise also had five kills.

“We really hoped to put on a better performance than we did,” Cole said. “James Wood was playing so well at the net we just weren’t able to get anything going.”

“We were really hyped to play Handley,” Burch said. “All of our scores against them this year have been real close. They obviously compete very well against us. We’re really happy to pull off the win tonight.”