WINCHESTER — During volleyball timeouts, coaches often share words that inspire their players to perform better. But it was clear that what James Wood coach Adrienne Patrick was doing with Handley up 20-17 in the second set as a result of a 4-0 Judges run was no regular pep talk.
Shortly after her team came together during Saturday’s Champions Classic at James Wood, players began to roar and draw out the word “YEAH!” as they screamed.
A couple moments later, the reason for the commotion was revealed over the public address system — Patrick had just informed the team that All-State senior Brenna Corbin had recorded her 1,000th career dig during the second set.
The Colonels and Corbin did not let the good vibes from that moment go to waste.
Handley extended its lead to 21-17 with an ace on the next point. But kills from Corbin on three of the next four points spurred an 8-1 run to close the set and the match.
James Wood posed for a picture with banners signifying Corbin’s 1,000th dig and Patrick’s 100th career win after the match. More than six hours later, the team walked to the lobby area of Shirley Gymnasium and posed in front of the white dry erase board with Saturday’s match results. It showed James Wood went 5-0 without losing a set in its elite, six-team round-robin tournament. Saturday marked the first time James Wood had hosted a tournament in Patrick’s six years as head coach.
The three-time defending state champion Colonels (6-0 overall this year) showed once again they are the team to beat in Class 4 on Saturday.
They swept an improved Handley (25-22, 25-22; 2-3 in the tournament); 2024 Class 4 quarterfinalist Dominion (25-19, 25-13; 0-5); 2024 Class 4 semifinalist and 14-time state champion Loudoun County (25-15, 25-21; 2-3); 2024 West Virginia Class AAAA state quarterfinalist and nine-time state champion Musselman (26-24, 25-18; 3-2); then blitzed VHSL defending Class 5 state champion Riverside (25-17, 25-16; 3-2). The Rams were one of just three teams that defeated James Wood in 2024 (3-2 in a regular-season match).
The Colonels didn’t truly get rolling until they learned of the Corbin news against Handley, which was their first match of the day. In addition to trailing for most of the second set against the Judges (3-3 record for the season), James Wood also found itself down for much of the first set against a Judges team that was sufficiently warmed up after a 2-1 (21-25, 25-14, 15-11) win over Dominion before taking on the Colonels.
The Colonels trailed 7-1 in the first set before taking the lead for good at 14-13, saw the Judges rally from a 19-14 deficit to climb within 23-22, then finally won the set on a kill by freshman Kennedi Bower and a block by reigning Class 4 Player of the Year Kennedy Spaid.
Patrick was not the least bit surprised that the Colonels played as well as they did after the Corbin news in the second set.
“We thrive off of each other’s successes,” Patrick said. “We want to do things that make our team proud. As individuals, we want to do things that make our team proud. I love that. I love that our team was the loudest.
“Brenna, being as humble as she is, just smiled. That our team’s there for her, I do think it was a bit of a boost [the rest of the match].”
Spaid felt Corbin’s recognition lit a fire.
“It definitely pumped me up, because Brenna’s my best friend,” said Spaid, who had nine kills, three blocks and an ace against the Judges. “Obviously, this is our last hurrah together before she goes off to college and I go off to college. It’s really special, just to get those moments.”
James Wood already had something to play for before the Handley match even started. During the digs announcement, it was also revealed that Corbin was celebrating her 17th birthday on Saturday. Corbin received balloons, and everyone on the team got her a bag of chips.
“She has about 10 million chips in her locker right now, just sitting there, waiting for her to go home,” Spaid said.
Coming into the Handley match, Corbin needed nine digs to get to 1,000. She didn’t know she was that so close to the milestone. The recognition of 1,000 digs caught Corbin by surprise, and she appreciated it. But she was looking forward to getting back on the court after the timeout.
“I got pretty mad [because of] some of the calls, and I also wasn’t playing my best,” said Corbin, an outside hitter and defensive specialist who had four of her seven kills and all nine of her digs in the match at that point. “So I just kind of snapped out of it, and we went up from there.”
The last of three thunderous spikes from Corbin that resulted in kills in the 4-0 run made it 21-21. Errors by the Judges on three of the next four points made it 24-22 James Wood, then junior setter Kylee Plumb closed out the match with an ace.
For Handley against James Wood, Breeze Johnson (seven kills, one ace), Paige Boone (four kills, one block), Sadie Bailey (four kills) and Elly Licklider (three aces) led the way.
The Judges match turned out to be James Wood’s closest match of the day. Overall, Patrick was glad to see James Wood overcome a frustrating first set against Handley and come together to play better throughout the entire day.
“There were so many communication errors, things that were controllable on our side,” Patrick said. “So that was 100 percent us, something we had to work through. As matches continued and we were changing some things up, we were able to work through that, so that was good.”
James Wood ended its day with its best performance.
Against a Riverside team that returns two of its three All-State players and five of its seven All-District players from last year, James Wood went on an 8-1 run to close out the first set, then jumped out to a 14-3 lead in the second set. The closest the Rams got from there was 24-16. Fittingly, Corbin ended the match on the following point with a thunderous spike in which the ball went off the ceiling after Riverside’s first touch before hitting the floor.
The Colonels were definitely pleased to take down a talented team that beat them last year, and show that they were definitely the best team on Saturday.
“We gave it our all,” Corbin said. “I was especially super excited for this [tournament], because all the teams are good. I knew we’d have competition all day.”
Though Handley finished 2-3, at times, it looked like the Judges were capable of winning all five of their matches. In addition to the matches against Dominion and James Wood, Handley was two points from beating Musselman in a 2-1 defeat (15-25, 26-24, 15-11), got a huge 2-1 win over Riverside after an intense third set (21-25, 25-20, 15-13), then had a 22-18 lead against Loudoun County in the first set before ultimately falling 25-23, 25-16.
“Definitely hoping for better than 2-3,” Handley coach Kristen Larson said. “But I think that at the same this proves that we can hang with the big dogs. I think that across the board, while we didn’t quite get the results that we wanted, [Saturday] is giving us a little more direction, and a little more idea of the things we need to focus on and work on.”
Overall, it was a successful tournament. About two years ago, Patrick told James Wood school admistrators she would love to host a tournament once the school’s renovations were complete.
“I wanted to showcase our amazing new facilty and our gym entrance,” Patrick said. “I’m extremely proud of everything James Wood, so I wanted to do something in which I’m inviting more people in.”
The field was filled with familiar foes. Riverside and Dominion were regular-season opponents last year and were slotted in as Champions Classic foes this year. The Colonels played Loudoun County from 2021-23 in the regular season. Musselman’s a local school that James Wood played against in the 2023 Endless Summer Tournament at the Virginia Beach Sports Center (James Wood did not participate in this tournament in 2024 but will play in this year’s event on Sept. 13.) And Handley is a perennial opponent.
“I’ve received some feedback from coaches that they’d come again if we hosted again, and they really enjoyed the level of competition,” Patrick said. “All teams, all coaches, the athletes, all benefited, all got something out of today, and that really is the point of a tournament.”
Larson certainly appreciated competing in it.
“Good competition, and it’s nice to see it right here at the start [of the season],” Larson said. “We played a lot of volleyball today, and it’s going to give us a lot of things to look at and decide where we want our focus to be.”
Handley will host Hampshire (West Virginia) on Wednesday and James Wood is next in action on Thursday when it hosts Sherando.
Other match results: Riverside: defeated Loudoun County 2-0; Musselman 2-1; Dominion 2-0. Musselman: defeated Loudoun County 2-0; Dominion 2-0. Loudoun County: defeated Dominion 2-0.
For more coverage of Saturday’s tournament, see Wednesday’s edition of The Winchester Star.
— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at rniedzwiecki@winchesterstar.com
Follow on X @WinStarSports1