Wood sweeps Millbrook in rivalry win

WINCHESTER — As the James Wood volleyball team was about to enter Millbrook High School for Tuesday’s rivalry match against the Pioneers, the Colonels took a few extra minutes to get off the bus.

Waiting to hear a song that would get both the varsity and JV teams hyped up, the bus driver allowed head coach Adrienne Patrick and her team to circle around the Millbrook parking lot three extra times. Once the right song came on, the Colonels all sang it together in unity.

That unity and team bonding led to a 3-0 sweep over rival Millbrook on Tuesday night with the scores of 25-20, 25-15, 25-17.

Both James Wood and Millbrook entered Tuesday’s match with 6-1 records, but it was the Colonels (7-1, 4-0 Class 4 Northwestern District) who executed better in all phases and never let Millbrook lead in two out of three sets to come away with the sweep.

In the first set, both teams battled and tried to start off on the right foot.

Down 21-19, the Pioneers brought the game to one point off a block by outside hitter Aaliyah Green to make it a 21-20 game. James Wood went on to score the next four points, though, as outside hitter Brenna Corbin delivered back-to-back kills before Millbrook had a serving error on the final possession to give the first set to the Colonels.

James Wood jumped out to a 6-1 lead to open the second set behind a pair of aces by Tenley Mattison and two kills by Kennedy Spaid. A few possessions later, Millbrook closed the gap with a 5-0 run and eventually tied the game at 10 apiece.

As the set continued, the Colonels weathered the storm and went on an 11-3 run of their own to go up 21-13. Spaid then helped propel her team to a win with two kills in the final four possessions to come away with the 10-point victory in the second set.

It was a similar story in the third set, as both teams went back and forth to begin play. As time went on, James Wood pulled away. At one point, the Colonels’ student section chanted, “This is our house,” as Corbin delivered a late kill to go up by one and help capture the sweep over the Pioneers (6-2, 1-1).

The Colonels’ performance came on the heels of an energetic bus ride that Patrick believed helped her team get off to a hot start.

Patrick couldn’t remember the name of the song that brought the team together. The most important thing was the feeling the song created.

“On the bus ride here, we’re making sure everybody’s singing and playing songs that people know, and then I can hear varsity singing, but not JV,” Patrick said. “So our bus driver actually let us take three additional laps in the parking lot until they played a song that everybody was singing.”

“And it’s intentional because your mood and how you feel about what you’re doing has a direct effect on how you do. I think that that kind of proves our team stays together as a team and plays as a team. We win as a team and try to avoid losing as a team, and I think that was evident today.”

Corbin finished the night with 17 digs, 10 kills and three aces. The junior outside hitter was glad to come away with a cross-town victory.

“Always a good competition for us,” Corbin said. “We knew what we had coming, and we got super hype. On the bus ride, we were all just as a team, especially in this game.”

Before Spaid led James Wood with 13 digs a team-high 15 kills on Tuesday, she and her teammates were getting excited for the matchup with the Pioneers while still maintaining composure.

“Before the game, we all have this big group chat, and we were all texting before school, ‘Let’s go,’” Spaid said. “We were all ready. We took this game. We really talked to each other. We said this is our game. This is no different game than any game we’ve already played. Even though they’re our rival, we just want to win, do our game and play for each other.”

In front of a packed gymnasium, it was the visiting Colonels who outscored the Pioneers by 23 points.

“It’s a big rival, and we’re excited to come away with the win,” Patrick said. “And it is something that you kind of work up to, like, ‘Hey, we got that big game tomorrow.’ So there is a mentality that this is a big one.”

After suffering its second loss of the season, Millbrook head coach Carla Milton said she was proud of her team’s competitiveness.

“I saw a lot of good things,” Milton said. “I mean, we had a lot of fight out there, [we] just didn’t make key plays at times when we actually needed them. We got in the holes, and we came back. If we could have got a few more to go our way, then maybe things would have been different.”

Outside hitter Berkeley Konrady led Millbrook with nine kills. Green had six kills and two blocks.

“It’s still early in the season, and we’ll see them again,” Milton added. “Hopefully, by then maybe things will get turned around.”

James Wood will be back on the hardwood when it goes to Fauquier on Thursday. Millbrook will travel to Meridian on the same day.

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