Wood finishes season volleyball sweep of Warriors

WINCHESTER — Following last week’s loss to Millbrook, James Wood volleyball coach Adrienne Patrick wanted to see improvement in her team’s serving to close out the regular season.

The Colonels have certainly gotten the job done in the last two matches. And not surprisingly, senior Katey Matthews was at the forefront of that effort on the Colonels’ Senior Night on Thursday at Shirley Gymnasium.

Matthews had 10 of James Wood’s 18 aces and the Colonels defeated Sherando 3-1 (25-14, 25-20, 23-25, 25-19) in Class 4 Northwestern District action.

The Colonels (15-5, 10-2 district) committed only 10 service errors, including only one in the first set and two in the fourth set against the Warriors (12-8, 7-5).

“Tonight was really important, because it was our last home regular-season game, “ said Matthews, who also had 10 digs and a team-high 18 assists. “We really just had to put it all out there today. I think we played good. We played as a team.”

Matthews (11 kills) led a group of six Colonel players with at least five kills and was one of eight players who had a kill in the second set.

Thursday’s match, which concluded the regular season, had no bearing on the seedings for the district tournament that starts on Monday with the first round. James Wood will be the No. 2 seed and host No. 7 Liberty while Sherando is seeded No. 3 and will host No. 6 Handley. Both the Colonels and Warriors swept their meetings with their upcoming opponents without dropping a set. The two winners of those matches will play each other in Tuesday’s semifinals.

The team leader in aces with 80, Matthews had two of them in a 4-0 run — which she started with a kill — to make it 22-17 in the fourth set, and Lexi Taylor finished off the match with an ace when her deep serve ate up a Warrior player and deflected behind her to give James Wood a season sweep of Sherando. The Colonels also won the first match 3-1 on Sept. 28.

James Wood set the tone early with eight serves in the first set that either produced aces or were challenging enough that the Warriors couldn’t get the ball back over the net with their three hits. The Colonels overcame a 5-1 deficit in the first set and closed the set with a 14-3 run.

Patrick is particularly pleased about her team’s ability to limit service errors this week. James Wood had 17 errors against 11 aces last week against Millbrook and 15 service errors in their last match against Sherando. James Wood had 24 aces and four errors in Tuesday’s match against Liberty leading into Thursday’s performance.

“I think our serving is getting a lot better,” said Matthews, who had four aces in a 9-0 run that propelled James Wood to a 17-10 lead in its second set win.

Serving was one of several factors that helped give seniors Matthews, outside hitter Kendall Funk (five kills, nine digs) and defensive specialist Caitlyn Shutts (12 digs) a Senior Night to remember.

“We had great performances from all three of the seniors,” Patrick said.

After Sherando closed out the third set with a 3-0 run featuring a kill by Regan Minney (she had a match-high 14), a block by Abby Branner (five aces, three blocks) and one of three aces by Mackenzie Ingrassia, James Wood started the fourth set with a 10-3 run.

Funk was in the middle of that run with a diving play near the net next to the sideline. She reached Ingrassia’s well-placed dink shot just before it hit the floor on Wood’s side and sent it just barely over the net onto the Warriors’ side, where it hit the floor for a 6-3 Wood lead.

“That really brought our energy up,” Funk said.

“In the postseason, we’ll need plays like that for high energy,” Patrick said. “I tell my team to keep the energy up a lot in the match.”

Sherando cuts its deficit to one point twice in the fourth set, but could never take the lead.

Despite the defeat, Thursday’s match could prove beneficial for the Warriors in the postseason. Sherando has tried different rotations and player roles the past two matches, and the Warriors at least got to see some success in the last two sets after falling 3-0 to Kettle Run on Tuesday.

“We switched things around after two sets tonight, just like we did against Kettle Run,” Minney said. “We found a breakthough [against James Wood] and did well, but we just couldn’t stay up with them. What I was looking for toward the middle of the match was to get some continuity in there.”

Minney said he was particularly pleased with the play of senior defensive specialist Gillian Banks.

“She did a great job,” Minney said. “She hasn’t played a lot, but she came in and was phenomenal passing. I give her a lot of credit. She saved our butt late on. We’re also playing Saige [Garver] all the way around and some of the other players all the way around, and that’s helped out, too. We’ve eliminated a substitution.

“What we’re looking at now is possibly breaking up the monotony of what we have. Bringing Gillian in, she’s passing well, and she’s picked it up.”

James Wood was also led by Melia Burch (eight kills); Ella Kelchner (six kills, four blocks); Paige Ahakuelo and Taylor (five kills, three aces each); Carsyn Vincent (18 digs) and Hannah McCullough (16 assists).

Garver had 11 kills and Helena Ritter added six for Sherando.

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