Kleiderlein paces strong defensive effort for Wood

STEPHENS CITY — Five days after Gillian Kleiderlein grabbed James Wood coach P.W. Hillyard’s attention against six-time defending state champion Loudoun County, she made her presence felt in a big way against Sherando on Tuesday night.

The senior middle had eight blocks — which Hillyard believes is a career high — and added five kills as the Colonels completed a season sweep of Sherando with a 3-0 win. James Wood (14-5, 8-1 Class 4 Northwestern District) won 25-14, 25-18, 25-19 in beating Sherando (7-9, 3-7).

Kleiderlein’s play at the net was part of an overall outstanding defensive performance by the Colonels. James Wood players kept numerous balls that seemed destined to go to the floor alive through their quick reactions and their sprawling dives to the floor, with senior libero Yeakley Pullen leading the way with 14 digs.

“We worked on defense [Monday] in practice,” Hillyard said. “We had a really good practice, and that helped us today. Sherando’s a good team. They’re always scrappy, and they have some girls who can swing a little bit. We made a lot of scramble plays. I was really proud of our team.”

Kleiderlein’s play at the net cut down on the amount of scrambling that James Wood’s other players had to do.

“Gillian had a really good match against Loudoun County,” Hillyard said. “I asked her if she could bottle that up and do that all the time. She was really impressive.”

James Wood and Sherando were tied 5-5 in the first set. But Kleiderlein had two blocks and two kills as part of a 10-2 run that opened up a 15-7 lead. James Wood maintained control of the rest of the set from there.

Though Kleiderlein’s play was impressive, she said James Wood’s defense was truly a team effort.

For example, Pullen and Jessica Putnam (team-high 11 kills and nine digs) each did well to control well-struck balls over the remainder of the first set on rallies that ended with James Wood kills.

In the second set, James Wood had three straight low-trajectory touches on a Sherando spike down the middle, with the third of those touches landing on the Warrior side for a kill. That came in the middle of a 14-3 run that gave the Colonels a 24-14 lead.

In the third set, setter Hanna Plasters (19 assists, nine digs) dove forward to the floor to dig balls on two consecutive points.

“I just think we really pulled together as a team,” said Kleiderlein, whose 43 blocks rank third in the area and are 27 more than anyone on the Colonels. “We put forth all our effort to dig every ball that we could, and we really laid it all out there.”

Kleiderlein said matches like the one James Wood had against Loudoun County (a 25-18, 25-20, 25-16 loss) make a team see what it needs to do to be the best it can be.

“You’re not going to get any better unless you play better teams,” Kleiderlein said. “That’s what we faced [against Loudoun County]. It really showed us what we need to work on and what we need to improve on, and we’re really pushing through to do that.”

By sweeping Sherando on Tuesday, James Wood demonstrated progress. The Colonels needed five sets to beat the Warriors in their first match on Sept. 6, but James Wood surged late in the third set to complete the sweep. With the score tied at 17, the Colonels went on an 8-2 run to close the match out.

“I think the girls remembered how tough Sherando was the first time, and they didn’t want another nail-biter tonight,” Hillyard said.

The Loudoun County match also prompted a lineup change from Hillyard. Taylor Robinson (12 assists on Tuesday) joined Plasters as one of the team’s two setters against Sherando in its 6-2 rotation.

“[Robinson] has good hands,” Hillyard said. “During one set of the Loudoun County match we put her at setter. She played some setter last year, so we made that decision to go with her tonight.”

Sherando

The Warriors said James Wood’s defense definitely gave them problems on Thursday.

“They got everything up,” Sherando senior setter Alyssa Meyer said. “It seemed like they got all of our hits back up, so that was amazing.”

James Wood’s ability to do that seemed to take its toll on Sherando’s attack as the evening wore on. The Warriors committed nine attack errors in the third set.

Warriors coach James Minney said Sherando needed to put more pressure on James Wood’s defense than it did.

“I think both defenses were good,” Minney said. “They just came at us more than we could go at them, and I think that was the difference. They’ve got more hitters. They’re very consistent at hitting, and we’re inconsistent.

“My defense has been pretty consistent all season long. But when you sit back and get bombed three, four, five times in a row, you’re going to lose one of them. Our big issue is that we can’t mimic other team’s hitting. We can’t hit like they hit. Without that, you’re going to lose in the end. That’s what’s happened all season long.”

Sherando is coming off a week in which it swept Liberty and took its first set off Millbrook in at least two years, so the Warriors hope they can bounce back from Tuesday’s defeat and finish strong. (Sherando had a match with Martinsburg, W.Va., on Wednesday night and finishes up the regular season with Kettle Run and Handley next week.)

“I think we’ve gotten a lot better,” Meyer said. “If we keep progressing, hopefully, we can beat [a higher-seeded district team in the postseason].”

Minney’s freshman daughter Regan led Sherando with six kills on Tuesday and junior Heather Walton had four.

“Our young girls are getting stronger,” Minney said. “We’re hoping for the next couple of years, that will help out.”

Week ahead

Today: Clarke County at Strasburg, 7 p.m.; Liberty at James Wood, 7 p.m.; Handley at Millbrook, 7:15. Monday: Clarke County at George Mason, 7 p.m. Tuesday: Millbrook at James Wood, 7 p.m.; Central at Clarke County, 7 p.m. Handley at Liberty, 7:15 p.m.; Kettle Run at Sherando, 7 p.m.

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