Colonels sweep Pioneers, earn state tournament berth for third straight year

WINCHESTER — The James Wood High School volleyball team set out a goal this season to win a third consecutive state championship, and it took a gigantic step toward that objective on Monday.

With a state tournament berth on the line, the Colonels swept Millbrook in the Region 4D semifinals in Donald H. Shirley Gymnasium with the scores of 26-24, 25-22, 25-12.

With the victory, the Colonels (19-3) clinched a spot in the Class 4 state tournament for the third straight year and a trip to the Region 4D championship game against South No. 2 seed E.C. Glass, a 3-1 winner over No. 1 Jefferson Forest in Monday's other semifinal. The Colonels will host that championship game at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.

The winner of that match will host the losing team of the Region 4C championship game (Loudoun County and Dominion play Tuesday) in the quarterfinals of the state tournament on Saturday. If James Wood loses on Wednesday, it will play at the Region 4C winner.

Even after the Pioneers (18-4) pushed the Colonels to a 24-24 deadlock late in the first set, James Wood’s confidence only improved. After scoring the last two points to close out the first set, the Colonels never trailed the rest of the match, taking commanding leads to begin the second and third sets.

After Millbrook took the Colonels to five sets on Oct. 22, junior outside hitter Brenna Corbin said she was glad to see Wood win with conviction on Monday.

“We took them five sets last time, and I think we stepped it up a lot,” Corbin said. “We weren't nervous this time. We had a little nerves last time, which was a little rough, but that's fine. We pulled through, and it's always exciting to beat a rival.”

In a back-and-forth first set, the Colonels led 22-16 before allowing Millbrook to go on an 8-2 run propelled by three attack errors from Wood. With the set tied at 24 apiece, Wood took a 25-24 lead after Millbrook couldn’t corral a hit from the Colonels. On the next possession, Millbrook outside hitter Berkeley Konrady tried to deliver a game-tying kill but ended up hitting it just outside of the boundary line to give Wood the first-set victory.

The momentum that the Colonels and coach Adrienne Patrick earned from closing out the first set catapulted them to strong performances in the next two sets.

“We had a whole conversation pre-match about grit and what the word means, and what it takes,” Patrick said. “And I feel like the resiliency and the perseverance, 100 percent that's what it means, and they weren't willing to let it go. That's what we have to have to continue in the state tournament.”

After a few calls that they were disgruntled with, Corbin and the Colonels set out to take the next two sets with a purpose.

“I think we got a lot of momentum from that set and just a lot of anger,” Brenna Corbin said. “The calls they were making [frustrated us] even more. We wanted the ball even more, so it just made us angry.”

Corbin used that anger to her advantage, recording four aces in the first nine possessions of the second set to give her team a commanding 9-0 lead.

Corbin said she got an assist from her mom, assistant coach Brandy Corbin, on where to place the ball on her serves in that set.

“When I'm back there, I look at my mom for a spot,” Corbin said. “I know where I'm going, and I take a deep breath, serve the ball and just hit with pretty much all my power.”

Corbin finished the match with 16 digs, nine kills and seven aces.

Patrick thought those early aces by Corbin and the 9-0 lead were huge in allowing Wood to play even more aggressively than it had been.

“Anytime that a team can get any type of lead, it allows them to breathe a little bit,” Patrick said. “You see potentially more flexible shots, people taking a little bit more risk. And to get far in the state tournament, you can't play scared, and you can't be afraid that you're going to go home. You have to give it everything that you've got.”

Held scoreless through nine possessions, the Pioneers went on an 18-14 run to draw within five at 23-18. But that scoring burst of momentum wasn’t enough to overcome the early hole Corbin and the Colonels put the Pioneers in, Millbrook coach Carla Milton said.

“I feel like they had some momentum, but I felt like we had some too because we finished strong in that first set,” Milton said. “I would say they really captured it at the beginning of the second one when they went on that serving run and had us down 9-0.”

Spaid ended up finishing off the second set with a spike that hit off a Millbrook defender near the sideline and bounced to the left, scraping the official on the ladder before landing out of bounds.

Spaid finished the night with a match-high 21 kills, one of which carried special significance.

The Colonels got out to a 5-0 lead to begin the third set off a few errors by Millbrook and two more aces by Corbin. And with James Wood up 7-2, Spaid slapped down a spike, hitting Konrady before the ball bounced out of bounds for Spaid’s 1,000th career kill.

Immediately after Spaid’s hit, Patrick called a timeout and surprised Spaid, who wears jersey No. 1, with a sign that read "1,000th Kill #1."

Spaid entered Monday’s match with 983 career kills and said it was “a huge surprise” for Patrick to pull out the sign and commemorate her achievement.

“It was definitely an exciting moment for me because I've worked so hard to get my 1,000 kills and hopefully I'll keep going my senior year,” Spaid said.

Up 8-2 after Spaid’s kill, the Colonels never looked back and closed out the match on a 17-10 run. Tenley Mattison added six kills, three aces and two blocks in the victory. Kylee Plumb had 35 assists.

Millbrook once again came up one win short of a state tournament berth after losing to James Wood in the Region 4D semifinals last season. Off the Pioneers' four losses this year, three came against the Colonels.

Patrick said she’s heard of people asking for a change in playoff format, so Millbrook doesn’t have to play James Wood as early.

“I've had so many people come up to me and ask, ‘Why don't you cross bracket? And why of two of these great teams, why is it only going to be one that continues on when it should be both?” Patrick said, “I can't answer that. But a lot of people question and say, ‘Well, Millbrook is a really talented team too,’ and I completely agree.”

Milton still thought the 18-4 season was a success.

“Very pleased with what we've done this season,” Milton said. “We continue to make the regional tournament. [My team] played strong against Sherando [in the Region 4D quarterfinals]. I still don't think we saw what they could do. It just didn't end how we wanted it to.”

Konrady finished Monday with a team-high 12 kills. Milton said she and middle hitter Nicole Burau, who were the only two seniors on the Pioneers’ roster, did everything the right way.

“They've done everything we've asked them to do this season,” Milton said. “You can't ask much more of them than that. I mean, obviously, you hoped it would finish a little bit better for them... But I can't say enough about what they've done this season for this team.”

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