Pioneers pull off upset over James Wood

October 21, 2011
By Robert Stocks

WINCHESTER- Millbrook High School's volleyball team has shown flashes of its potential against both of the Northwestern District's top teams this season.

The Pioneers made Sherando dig deep for a four-set win on Tuesday, and they nearly took James Wood to five sets in their first meeting on Oct. 4.

In Thursday night's rematch with the Colonels, the Pioneers put their scrappy play on display once again, forcing that fifth set they came ever-so close to (a 24-26 loss in set four) in the first meeting.

This time, Millbrook seniors Blake Parkes and Nicole DeRemer and junior Brittany Whitacre came through with enough clutch points to rally the Pioneers to a stunning 3-2 (17-25, 26-24, 20-25, 25-19, 15-8) victory at Casey Gymnasium. After the post-match handshake, the Pioneers huddled together screaming and then posed for a team picture to commemorate perhaps the biggest win to date under second-year head coach Eric Heflin.

"As of right now I'd rank it No. 1," said Whitacre of her team's victory. "I definitely think this is a really big win for us."

"It's probably one of the best," added Parkes. "It's exciting. I think everybody thought we were the underdog, but now maybe we're showing them we're a little scrappier than they thought."

The Pioneers' win drops James Wood (13-5, 4-2) out of a first-place tie with Sherando (6-1 district), putting the Warriors all alone in first place with a chance to clinch the regular season district title at Handley on Monday. James Wood faces Skyline and Handley (and must win both) next week, and the Colonels would need a win by the Judges over Sherando on Monday to force a one-game playoff for the regular-season crown.

"It's a little rough," James Wood coach Jill Lester said following her team's third match of the week. "We made entirely too many mistakes tonight. If we would have won I would have been a little surprised because we just made entirely too many hitting errors and serving errors. We don't typically play volleyball the way we did tonight. This is probably our weakest showing yet, and Millbrook capitalized on our errors."

Millbrook (13-6, 4-3) took control from the start of the fifth set, getting a kill from Whitacre, an ace from DeRemer (10 kills) and a kill and a block from Parkes to take a 4-1 lead the Pioneers would never relinquish.

James Wood cut the deficit to one twice, the second coming after a kill by Erica Hepner that rolled over the net and dropped to cut the Pioneers' lead to 8-7.

But back-to-back kills by DeRemer pushed James Wood's lead back to 10-7, forcing a James Wood timeout and energizing the Pioneers fans who responded with chants of "Let's go Millbrook!"

James Wood senior Eleanor Kent's kill cut the deficit to two, but the Pioneers reeled off five straight points to end it.

DeRemer made two of her four kills in the set in the decisive 5-0 run, and Whitacre leapt above the net to stuff a freeball. After a James Wood hitting error set up match point, Whitacre (eight kills, five aces and five blocks) closed it out with a kill that glanced off the tape and dropped over Colonels middle Erica Hepner.

DeRemer, Parkes and Whitacre combined for 11 of the Pioneers' 15 points in the fifth set.

"I couldn't ask for more out of them," Heflin said of DeRemer, Parkes and Whitacre. "[Those three] are our go-to people. Any one of them - I feel comfortable with them hitting."

Parkes, who had 14 kills, said she told her teammates to break the fifth set down into segments.

"I kept telling our team it's three mini games to five," Parkes said. "The first to five, the first to 10, and the first to 15. It's all about keeping the momentum on our side and just keeping it rolling."

After the Colonels cruised to a 25-17 win in the opening set, James Wood led by as many as seven in the second set and had set point after Millbrook's Jessica Craft whiffed on a freeball.

With a 24-20 advantage, the Colonels failed to convert five set points. On the fifth set point, freshman Katie Houser (15 kills) sent a kill into the net and then Hepner was called for being over the net to put the Pioneers ahead 25-24. On set point for the Pioneers, James Wood committed a net violation to even the match 1-1.

"After we lost that second set we never totally came back," said Kent, who had nine kills, five blocks and four aces. "Our district is so close and when that lead swings it's hard to get it back."

The Colonels overcame an early 7-4 deficit in the third and never trailed after Kent capped a 4-0 spurt with a block to put James Wood ahead 16-11.

Millbrook took control with a 6-3 run midway through the fourth set, and DeRemer's ace put the Pioneers ahead 16-11, forcing a Colonel timeout.

The Pioneers led by as many as seven, and James Wood never cut the deficit to less than three as Millbrook closed out the fourth set 25-19.

Lester said her team struggled to regain the momentum after failing to convert five set points (and the Colonels also failed to convert five match points against Millbrook in the third set before beating the Pioneers in four back on Oct 4).

"We started making a lot of hitting errors right there [at the end of the second set], and Katie Houser's shoulder's bothering her and we were calling timeout and not letting her serve," she said. "We were trying to preserve her shoulder as much as possible.

"She wasn't 100 percent tonight. Your leading outside hitter is injured, the hitting errors, the service errors - it's a recipe for a loss."

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