WINCHESTER — With seven players back from a three-time state defending state champion team, it’s no surprise that the James Wood High School volleyball team is off to a stellar 6-0 start, which includes a 5-0 performance at Saturday’s Champions Classic at James Wood.
But even though the end result for the Colonels has always been the same each of the past three seasons, the dymamics of the team are different each year.
James Wood received strong effort from every person on its 11-girl roster on Saturday. But the performance of one returner and two freshmen in particular are just more reasons why the Colonels have to feel good about their chances of hoisting the Class 4 state title trophy for the fourth-straight year.
James Wood returns four of its five All-Region 4D selections this year in senior outside hitters Kennedy Spaid (Class 4 State Player of Year) and Brenna Corbin (First Team All-State), junior setter Kylee Plumb (Second Team All-Region) and junior hitter/middle Kyla Wilhelm (Honorable Mention All-Region).
The one All-Region selection who isn’t back was on the other side of the net for James Wood’s first match on Saturday — Second-Team pick Tenley Mattison, a senior middle hitter now at Handley.
Mattison’s blocking ability certainly made a difference for James Wood in 2024. She had 51 last year, more than twice as many as anyone else on the team, not to mention her 125 kills ranked third on the Colonels.
On Saturday, senior Claire Keefer showed she was capable of being a leading defensive presence in the middle this year with 11 blocks in 10 sets, including three solo blocks. Keefer was mostly a right side hitter last year after previously focusing on the middle hitter position prior to the 2024 season.
“She’ll move back and forth this year, right side and middle, like she did [Saturday],” James Wood coach Adrienne Patrick said. “This role is definitely not new to her.”
Patrick said she and assistant coach Brandy Corbin train their players to be versatile so they can step in at a variety of positions.
“At any given time, we can do different things with different people,” Patrick said.
One of those people is freshman Kennedi Bower. She’s listed as a middle hitter on the roster, but Patrick noted she played on the right side in the last four matches of Saturday’s tournament. Patrick said for club volleyball, she plays on the middle and outside. No matter where she was playing Saturday, Bower got the job done.
After playing only one set in the season opener against Fauquier on Thursday, she played in all 10 sets on Saturday and ranked third on the team with 17 kills behind Spaid (45) and Corbin (34). Bower had a kill to make it 24-22 in the first set against Handley. Against Musselman, she jumped with Keefer to tap down a ball that floated over to give the Colonels a 25-24 lead in the first set, then combined with Reese Justice on a block to close out a 26-24 set.
For most of the 2023 and 2024 seasons, James Wood hasn’t used a libero because Corbin, who would ideally play that role, is needed as an outside hitter. On Saturday, freshman Macie Hewitt received a lot of time at libero and ranked third on the team in digs with 22 behind Corbin and Spaid (36 each).
“I think having somebody who has some experience in that role, and someone that we feel we can continue to train and would grow in that role, I think that that’s great,” Patrick said. “Of course I always wanted Brenna to be in that role, but I can’t take her out of the front row. [Hewitt] has an extremely positive attitude and is working up to being a vocal leader on the court. And having Brenna play in the back row next to her, that’s just so much court awareness transfer.”
Basically, Patrick has a lot of reason for optimism.
“I think how we have things set up this year is going to set us up nicely for the season,” Patrick said. “I couldn’t be more happy with the dynamic of the team. I am looking forward to this season.”
Other James Wood stat leaders
Plumb averaged 12.4 assists per match on Saturday with a total of 62, while sophomore newcomer Bella Middleton averaged four assists per set for a total of 32. Corbin and Spaid had eight aces each.
Wood milestones
Patrick recorded her 100th career win in the victory over Handley that started Saturday’s action and now sits at 104-17 for her career. Now in her sixth season, Patrick’s teams went 5-4 in the spring 2021 season, 17-7 in the fall of 2021, 26-1 in 2022, 27-2 in 2023, 23-3 in 2024, and are off to a 6-0 start this year.
Corbin recorded her 1,000th dig in the same match that Patrick got her 100th win, and she said it meant a lot to her that they both achieved milestones on Saturday. After recording 248 digs as a freshman, Corbin led the area in that category in 2023 (345) and 2024 (387).
“I was so happy for her,” Corbin said. “I’m super happy that she’s my coach.”
Solid day for Handley
The Judges did well in going 13-9 last year, but they showed Saturday they’re capable of beating anyone while going 2-3.
They beat 2024 Class 5 state champion Riverside 2-1 and 2024 Class 4 state quarterfinalist Dominion 2-1 by winning the last two sets each time. They lost 2-1 to 2024 West Virginia Class AAAA quarterfinalist Musselman after winning the first set and being two points away from a sweep in the second set. They were within 23-22 of James Wood in the first set and led 21-17 in the second set of a 2-0 loss. And they led 2024 Class 4 state semifinalist Loudoun County 22-18 in the first set of a 2-0 loss.
“We knew coming in here that all the teams were going to be super competitive,” Handley senior setter Elly Licklider said. “Even just winning two, we learned a lot from all these games. It’s a big deal we were able to come out here with two wins.”
The Riverside match was particularly impressive. In the course of Handley’s 15-13 win in the third set, the two squads were separated by more than one point only once prior to the conclusion of match point. Riverside led 11-9, but that was wiped out by a Sadie Bailey kill and a Rams attack error to make it 11-11.
Handley played strong defense throughout the third set, and ultimately, Handley’s blocking and serving decided it. Breeze Johnson had a block to make it 13-13, Licklider’s ace made it 14-13, and Paige Boone’s block on the left side on match point prompted Handley players to scream and jump.
“We were just hustlling for everything we could possibly get our hands on,” Licklider said. “We did not let anything drop. We really put it all out on the court and that match. It was huge [to beat Riverside]. We were all very proud of ourselves. We worked hard, so it felt good.”
Handley coach Kristen Larson said she liked the Judges’ energy in that match, which they figured going in would be hard to win.
“Maybe because we didn’t have super-high expectations for ourself, and we were hitting all the reasonable expectations that we had, and we were succeeding in there, it just gave us a little bit more momentum,” she said.
Larson said it was good to show the team can play well against elite teams. While the Judges showed plenty of enthusiasm in closing out Riverside, Larson said they could use more of that type of energy to help them sustain success and come out on top in other winnable matches.
“I think we don’t celebrate as much as we need to on the little things, and I think we play calmly but almost too calm sometimes,” Larson said. “I think that comes back to kind of get us sometimes, because we don’t necessarily bring as much energy to it as we can.
“And that’s a completely mental focus-type thing. It’s hard to stay engaged at a Level 10 throughout an entire match. What we just talked about in our huddle is how do we push through when we’re up by six, how do we keep the lead, and when we’re in the 20s [in points], how do we not let [opponents] pick away and get close to us. That’s definitely one of the things we need to work on.”
The Judges appear to be more well-rouded this year. Handley did not have anyone with more than 18 blocks all season last year, so it makes a difference to add a player like Mattison, who had blocks on three straight points in the second set against Loudoun County.
“Handley traditionally has not been a really strong blocking team,” said Larson, who is in her seventh year with the team (fourth as head coach). “We had nine blocks against Clarke [in the season opener], and that’s way more blocks than we’ve had against any team in years past. We have a good example [for blocking with Mattison], and the girls who are in those roles are a little more comfortable this year.”
It also appears that Handley can spread the attack around more this year. Johnson (391) was the only Judge with more than 115 kills last year. Handley had five players with multiple kills against James Wood and four against Loudoun County, with Mattison (one kill), getting four direct points up front as a result of her blocks against the Captains.
“We’ve got kids who are multi-role players on the team,” said Larson, who feels the team is deeper in all areas this year. “Breeze is a powerhouse. But Sadie Bailey is doing some awesome things, Molly Peterson is doing some awesome things as a freshman coming in. Super smart play on her part. Paige Boone has grown. The addition of Tenley with our other middles, we’re able to use them a little bit more.”
The Judges are looking forward to the rest of the season.
“We just mesh well together,” Licklider said. “We not only individually fill our roles, but we just play so well together. We complement each other and we help out each other.”
— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at rniedzwiecki@winchesterstar.com
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