James Wood rallies to defeat Millbrook in 5-set thriller

WINCHESTER — There couldn’t have been a more fitting song played before James Wood’s volleyball match against Millbrook on Tuesday.

Prior to the high school rivalry match, the Colonels played “Sirius” by The Alan Parsons Project, the same song the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls played before their games. And much like the legendary Bulls dynasty, the Colonels seemed to refuse to quit when they were down.

In a high-stakes Class 4 Northwestern District match, James Wood rallied from behind to defeat the Pioneers in five sets with the scores of 25-20, 21-25, 14-25, 26-24, 15-8 in Donald H. Shirley Gymnasium.

With the win, the Colonels (14-3, 8-0 Class 4 Northwestern District) ended Millbrook's nine-game win streak. That streak began after James Wood swept Millbrook in September.

Led by outside hitter Kennedy Spaid, who finished with a match-high and career-high 30 kills, the Colonels stormed back from a 2-1 deficit.

After losing the third set by 11, James Wood coach Adrienne Patrick and assistant coach Brandy Corbin omitted themselves from the huddle before the fourth set. Patrick said the players already received the message from her. It was time for them to have a player-led discussion on how to rally.

“If I was telling them the same message in those second set huddles and the third set huddles, and if there's no new result, I can't keep doing the same thing because that's the definition of insanity, right?” Patrick said.

With an experienced and battle-hardened team, the Colonels focused on what they could do better in the fourth set to spark a comeback.

“We talked about what each player could do and how we could do that,” Spaid said. “And what each player’s [role is]. We just wanted to dominate for each other.”

The player-led huddle paid off, as the Colonels went on to win the nail-biting fourth set 26-24.

After James Wood took a 20-14 lead, the Pioneers (15-3, 4-2) went on a 10-4 run spurred by multiple attack and service errors by the Colonels to tie the game at 24 apiece.

With Millbrook recapturing momentum, James Wood outside hitter Kyla Willhelm then delivered a tip over the net to give the Colonels a 25-24 lead. An ensuing attack error by Millbrook on the next possession ended the set and tied the match 2-2. Spaid finished the set with seven kills and one ace.

“That was intentional,” Patrick said of the huddle to end the third set. “I told them that they needed to talk with each other, talk to each other about what they needed to do, because I've already told them what I wanted to see them do and what they needed to do. We just took a step back, and we let them [talk], and that's really valuable.”

Entering the fifth set, it was anyone’s match. But with the final set tied 5-5, Brenna Corbin had back-to-back kills to give James Wood a two-point edge. A few possessions later, the Colonels found themselves up 8-7. A service area by Millbrook then made it 9-7.

It was at that moment that Spaid put on a cape and slapped down three consecutive kills to give her team a 12-7 lead. And after a ball-handling error and an attack error by Millbrook, the Colonels only needed one more point to win the match.

Two possessions later, Spaid received a set from Kylee Plumb and smacked down the ball for the match-winning kill.

“It was definitely amazing,” Spaid said of the kill. “And I have to give credit to my setter because she's been giving me dime sets all day.”

Whenever James Wood needed a spark, Spaid was often the one who delivered.

“Being able to dominate when she's in the front row, and even creating options potentially in the back row, is what I’ve come to expect from her,” Patrick said of Spaid. “And she expects that from herself.”

Corbin finished the match with 12 kills, 11 digs and three blocks and was happy to see the team rally from behind.

“It definitely fires us up,” Corbin said. “I mean, we knew we shouldn't have been in that position, but we were, and we had to deal with it. So, we had to take care of the business.”

Plumb had 33 assists and 13 digs on the night. Tenley Mattison added five blocks, five digs and four kills.

The Colonels’ performance in the last two sets came after Millbrook dominated the third set.

After her team went on a 10-2 run to take a 24-14 lead, Millbrook outside hitter Berkeley Konrady smacked down the game-winning spike on the right side of the court to come away with the 11-point victory in set three. Konrady finished with 14 kills, five of which came in the third set. Nicole Burau also had three kills and two aces in the set.

Although James Wood won the first set, at that moment, Millbrook had all the momentum.

Pioneers coach Carla Milton still knew the match was far from over.

“We knew they were going to go on a run,” Milton said. “They're a good team, and I take nothing away from what they did. I thought my team played well tonight, as well. You know, we just made some mistakes at inopportune times. If we cut some of those out, the game might have gone a different way.”

Millbrook won the second set by four points behind five kills from Konrady and several attack errors by James Wood, including the last one that gave the Pioneers the set victory.

Spaid was just as lethal in the first set as she was down the stretch. She had eight kills in the opening set. Her last kill came on the game-winning point, when Spaid fired a spike down toward Millbrook libero Katherine Madden. Madden dove to save the ball, but it went flying out of bounds, giving the first set to James Wood.

“We know she's one of their go-to girls,” Milton said of Spaid. “We just didn't have the block in the right place sometimes, and she hits the ball extremely fast. We'll regroup, and we'll get better from it.”

James Wood travels to Williamsport (Md.) on Wednesday. Millbrook will host Sherando on Thursday.

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