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Clean sweep: Warriors blank Handley to earn berth in championship
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By Jeremy Stafford -- jstafford@nvdaily.com
FRONT ROYAL -- The Skyline gymnasium was blanketed in a strange, eerie silence. Not a lyric leaked from the school's sound system; not a sound swirled above the empty echoes of two dozen bouncing volleyballs.
It was all unfamiliar to Lauren Wilkins, the Sherando hitter, the Warriors' emotional fire and spark.
"They didn't play music when we were warming up -- we're so used to that, and that pumps us up a lot," Wilkins said. "There was that awkward quietness."
Even Sherando coach Chuck Ashby noticed the odd atmosphere, which provided none of the deafening, blaring commotion expected of a Northwestern District tournament semifinal volleyball match.
"It's kind of disappointing to win the district and not have a game at home: You don't have your home crowd -- they have to travel to come out and see you -- and when we first started warming up, it wasn't a very big group of people here at all.
"It was very quiet -- it was just like a scrimmage in the beginning of the season."
And though the Warriors took the semifinal match 3-0 (25-18, 25-17, 25-9) over Handley, there was no denying a certain level of frustration coursing through the Warriors.
The Sherando spikes weren't falling, would-be kills were being dug, passes weren't direct; girls were yelling at each other, all while setter Taylor Henshaw glared her hitters in the eye and pointed to her temple: Think smart.
Henshaw understood the Handley digs were frustrating for everyone; she also understood that, even as the top seed in the tournament, a win in the postseason is hardly ever guaranteed.
"It's so hard because as a hitter you want to slam the ball as hard as you can, just to make it look so good," Henshaw said. "But that's the thing: A really good hitter is someone who plays smart."
After all, a kill is a kill, no matter how soft.
By the third set, Sherando hitter Morgan Sirbaugh, who had a match-high 11 kills, discovered her tips fell more easily than her spikes, and Wilkins discovered her jump serve was just as potent as her attacks. Wilkins had two aces in the third set and Henshaw added another.
Laughing, Henshaw had a simple explanation for Sherando's sudden turnaround in that final set.
"I think finally we were fed up with how crappy we were playing," she chuckled. "We were just like, 'This is horrible,' and so then we picked it up and cleaned it up."
Wilkins had six kills in the match, while Megan Sirbaugh and Brooke Schneider each had three. Sherando scored 28 kills against the Judges, who notched only seven kills in turn.
"We knew it had to start with defense because [Sherando's] a strong hitting team," said Handley coach Lindsay Hazelette, whose Judges earned the tournament's fifth seed with a win over Skyline on Monday. "I think we got better each time we saw [Sherando] during the season -- we were ready for them defensively."
But after keeping up with the Warriors for the better part of two sets, the Judges faltered. They committed 13 errors, and the frustrations which first haunted Sherando slowly slithered to the Handley side of the court.
And Sherando rolled on.
The Warriors went on a 13-2 run thanks to eight combined service points by Ashleigh Tanis and Megan Sirbaugh. Wilkins scorched the Judges for two more kills and freshman Jessica Henry punctuated the match with a kill of her own.
Morgan Sirbaugh admitted that hidden within the victory was a lesson attainable only after a tough, tournament-opening match, but which will be invaluable as the postseason goes on.
"We weren't as prepared tonight as we would be playing Millbrook or James Wood," she said. "But now we know we have to be prepared for every single game."
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