Millbrook volleyball sweeps Wood for district tourney title

WINCHESTER — As Millbrook's players chanted with their student fans after Thursday's Class 4 Northwestern District volleyball championship match, Pioneers coach Carla Milton stood behind senior defensive specialist Mikayla Doherty with her arms held high and spread apart.

Milton positioned herself in that catching manner just in case Doherty were to drop the district championship trophy that she was holding high in her right hand while she celebrated with the students, most of whom were dressed as construction workers with hard hats and orange and yellow vests.

But there was no need to worry. Doherty's grip was as firm as Millbrook's grasp of its leads against James Wood.

The Pioneers avenged their two regular-season losses with a 3-0 sweep (25-19, 25-21, 25-23) of the previously undefeated Colonels at James Wood's Shirley Gymnasium. The only lead that Millbrook lost the entire night was the 1-0 advantage it had at the start of the second set.

Millbrook (21-2) defended its district tournament championship with the win and will host Dulles District tournament champion Dominion (17-6) at 6 p.m. in Tuesday's Region 4C semifinals. The Pioneers won 3-2 over the Titans — who beat Broad Run Thursday — in last year's regional semifinals at Millbrook.

James Wood (21-1) will travel to Dulles regular-season champion Rock Ridge (18-4) for a 7 p.m. regional semifinal match on Tuesday. The Phoenix lost in the Dulles tournament semifinals to Broad Run on Wednesday.

"It's a great feeling," said Millbrook senior setter Madison Koeller, one of five returning players from a team that also features five newcomers. "We did it last year, and coming out with a new group of girls and having them experience it as well is awesome."

Koeller had 37 assists, seven digs, four blocks and four aces to lead the Pioneers. The two players who took the most advantage of Koeller's sets were first-year varsity members Berkeley Konrady, who had seven of her 13 kills in the opening set and 10 of her 11 digs in the third set; and junior Gracie Behneke, who had six of her 13 kills in the third set.

After defeating the Pioneers twice by 3-1 scores during the regular season, the Colonels were certainly the favorite to win Thursday's match. But, the Pioneers just wouldn't be denied.

James Wood would force a 16-16 tie in the first set, but Millbrook closed out the game with a 9-3 run.

The Colonels jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the second set and led by as many six points twice (17-11 and 18-12). But Milbrook closed the second set with a 13-3 run and took the lead for good in a 6-0 run to end the second set.

James Wood fought relentlessly after a 4-0 run put the Pioneers up 9-5 in the third set. But Millbrook went on another 4-0 run after the Colonels closed to 19-18. James Wood went on a 3-0 run to cut the Pioneers' lead to 24-23. But after Milton called timeout, James Wood sent the first serve after the break into the net to set off a Millbrook celebration.

"From Point 1 to the finish, they pushed hard on every single point," Milton said. "They didn't let down. They moved everywhere. They played like it was Point 25 every time.

"We knew James Wood was going to give us a fight, and they did. After we got the first [set], I told them in the second one they're going to come back harder, and they did. But we hung in there with them. We stayed patient. We went with the game plan, and it worked."

Along with a win over Hedgesville (W.Va.) on Oct.6, Koeller thought Thursday's match was one of the Pioneers' best, and she was impressed by Millbrook's energy and effort.

"We really just gave it our all," said Konrady, who repeatedly praised Koeller's setting after the match. "We really put our heart out there."

Valentina Burrill (six kills for the match) did some damage on the attack from the middle position on Thursday, but Millbrook's offensive success mainly came from Koeller knowing who to find on the edges. With Konrady recording seven kills and Behneke recording four in the first set, Millbrook was efficient on the attack from the start. The Pioneers had 13 total kills and three attack errors in the opening game.

"We didn't tell Madison anything to do," Milton said. "She knows who has the hot hand, and when we need to mix it up. We definitely want to be able to feed all of our hitters up and down the net, not just the outside, but that was working tonight, so Madison kept feeding them."

A Konrady kill and a James Wood attack error closed out the first set. For a Millbrook team that lost the first two sets in both regular-season matches against James Wood, taking the first set was an important step.

"We needed to get that first set so we could get our groove going," Koeller said.

James Wood got off to that hot 7-2 start in the second set behind three kills from Kennedy Spaid (team-high 12 kills for the match) and two of Hannah McCullough's three aces, and Milton called a timeout.

The Pioneers didn't turn things around immediately, but the patience Milton saw from her team finally paid off 36 points later when Koeller fed Ashley Roberts (three blocks) for a kill to make it 22-21 Millbrook, the first Pioneer lead in the set since it was 1-0.

James Wood coach Adrienne Patrick called timeout, but Millbrook kept coming with three straight points. Behneke closed out the set with a kill after an intensely long rally.

The Pioneers never trailed in the third set, but they never led by more than five points.

Behneke had a kill and Koeller had two aces (the second hit the top of the net and went to the floor) as part of 4-0 run that pushed Millbrook's lead from 19-18 to 23-18, and Koeller flicked the ball with two hands from the floor into space for a kill and a 24-20 lead. A Spaid kill kicked off a 3-0 Wood run, but the errant serve ended the match.

"They were trusting in each other tonight more than I have seen all season long," Milton said. "It's a good time to be finally finding that trust. I told them this is what I've been looking for all season long. Not that we haven't been strong before, but we really played a complete match tonight.

"The players we had coming back from last year really expressed in the last few days not only did they want it for themselves, they really wanted the other girls to experience winning a district championship. I think that just kind of brought them closer together as a team, and obviously fueled their game play tonight."

Patrick gave credit to Millbrook for playing with confidence throughout the match, and having a strong all-around performance.

"When we lost the first set, I feel like there was a lot of playing tight and emotion on our side," Patrick said. "We didn't really break out of that. I think that our energy was lower than what it had been. We had little spurts where we could go on a couple-point runs, but that wasn't enough."

Patrick feels the Colonels could grow from their first defeat.

"Hopefully, we learn from this loss in regards to what is effective and impactful for our team," Patrick said.

James Wood also was led by Addie Pitcock (seven kills), Lexi Taylor (three blocks), Paige Ahakuelo (17 assists) and Carsyn Vincent (11 digs). Camdyn Lockley added six kills for Millbrook.

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