Millbrook rallies from 2-0 deficit to score volleyball win over James Wood

WINCHESTER — James Wood and Millbrook’s girls’ volleyball teams squared off in a battle for first place in Class 4 Northwestern District play. The match between the two undefeated district teams turned out to be as advertised with the winner decided only after five titanic sets.

Trailing by two sets, the Pioneers (11-3, 6-0 in district) staged a dramatic comeback to win the next three (23-25, 12-25, 25-23, 25-18, 15-12) and upend the stunned Colonels (10-5, 4-2).

“This was really good volleyball all around, “ Pioneer coach Carla Milton said. “I really don’t think we got down after the second set. The first set was a really close one, and after we got blown out in the second set we used that to fuel our comeback.”

“It was really loud in the gym,” Tori Johnson said. “We just needed to be louder on the court and play intensely.”

While Tori Johnson was hammering home kills, the Weir sisters dominated at the net. Jordan Weir scored on four blocks for the night, including three key ones in the fourth set. Alexis had two blocks, but the most important one came in the tiebreaker that killed a Wood rally.

“I was looking for hits they were making and I really thought that I could block anything they sent my way,” Jordan Weir said. “I was really glad that I could use that to help our team out. This was a big win.”

Victory didn’t come easily in the final set. The set was tied three times over the first six exchanges, but with the score tied at three, Tori Johnson rattled off two straight kills, and Skylar Johnson followed with an ace to put Millbrook up 6-3.

Although the Colonels kept it close, the Pioneers never trailed. Tori Johnson closed out the match with a kill.

Things didn’t look promising for Millbrook after the first two sets, though. In the closest set of the night which featured six ties and four lead changes, Wood survived to take the opening set by two points.

Colonel Jessica Putnam led the way with six of her team-high 24 kills during the match, but it was Wood’s dramatic performance at the service line late in the set that made the difference. With the Colonels leading 19-17, Ryenne Terenzi scored on four straight aces to put Wood up 23-17.

Millbrook answered with a pair of kills by Tori Johnson and three straight aces by Jordan Reid to narrow the Colonel lead to 24-23. A kill by Putnam gave Wood a razor-close victory.

The Colonels completely dominated Millbrook in the second set, jumping ahead 13-3 and coasting to a 25-12 win. Wood used the service line to completely befuddle the Pioneers. Five different Wood servers produced eight aces during the set.

With things looking bleak for Millbrook after the second set, the Pioneers rallied in the next three sets to completely change the momentum and pull out the win.

Jumping ahead 10-7, the Pioneer defense refused to allow a Wood rally and the two sides exchanged points through the remainder of the set. Trailing 24-20, the Colonels did rally to cut Millbrook’s lead to one, but a short return by Wood gave the set to the Pioneers.

“We had really lost the momentum after the first two sets,” Tori Johnson said. “We just needed to get some of our energy back. We did that in the last three sets. A win like this really is something we can build on.”

Neither team could pull away in the early exchanges of the fourth set, but with the score tied at 15 Millbrook slowly pulled away behind the play of Abigail Koeller, who had six kills during the set.

Besides Putnam, Terenzi had a big night for Wood with six aces and two blocks. Gillian Kleiderlein had eight kills and three blocks for the Colonels.

“The district race is only half over,” Milton said. “We need to forget about what we’ve done so far and focus on what’s coming up.”

Koeller finished the night with 16 kills for the Pioneers.

“This was just a great match,” Colonel coach P. W. Hillyard said. “We just didn’t make the plays when we needed to. Millbrook is a really good team, but we’re a really good team, too. Things just didn’t go our way tonight.”