WILSON EXTRA: SACCO: Winning ugly — very ugly

FISHERSVILLE

Heading to Richmond? Great.

Your coach needs to scream “get aggressive,” one-win away from a Final Four appearance? Not so great.

And there lies the road on which the Wilson Memorial Green Hornets chose to take down to Richmond’s Siegel Center. Instead of the perfect match they gave fans against Strasburg in the Region B championship to get them here, the Hornets decided it was time to rest on their laurels and do something that plagued them in 2007, but did not rear its ugly head until now in 2008 — playing down to the other team’s level.

Nobody exiting the Wilson Memorial locker room was going to say that Northumberland’s appearance in the Group A tournament had them scratching their heads. But we’ll say it — they didn’t belong on the same court as the Green Hornets. The Indians have one productive hitter in Ruth Hedberg in front of a better-than-average defense.

The Green Hornets can counter with Noël Bartley, Tiffany Crosby and, of course some player you may or may not have heard of — Kala Guy.

It was a match that should have been 25-16 across the board. It was a match that should have been over in an hour’s time, harkening back to the days of Waynesboro’s run to the Final Four when regional play and the first round of states saw the Little Giants exiting the gym by 8 p.m. Instead, errors and playing with all the aggressiveness of Captain Kangaroo turned the final two games into 25-19 and 25-20, “Oh-geez-come-on-girls” screamers. They most certainly were not nail biters in any way, shape and/or form.

“We can’t play like that against Strasburg [on Friday],” said senior Christine Coffield.

Well, no duh.

The Hornets shouldn’t have played like that against Northumberland, a volleyball team so small you could have carried it around in a teacup, with the obvious exceptions of Hedberg and Whitney Rock.

That’s why the after-match victory celebration was subdued on the court.

That’s why coach Kim Claytor looked more like she was greeting the media after a loss, not a historic win in her five years at the helm.

“It was not a pretty win and I’m not happy with the win,” Claytor said as she leaned up against the prison-like walls of the locker room hallway. “I’m happy we won, don’t get me wrong. But it brought them back to reality.”

Talking with the likes of Guy, Coffield and Julia Aronson, they needed the reality check. The publicity, Guy said, may have lifted the Hornets’ feet off the ground and, in the haze of the media-made stratosphere, Wilson lost its edge.

“I think all the publicity and all the wins and how well we’ve been playing gave us somewhat of big heads,” Guy said. “It brought us down to planet Earth.”

“Part of me thinks it’s a good thing,” Coffield said. “It woke us up a bit.”

“We’re just going to refocus,” Aronson said.

They have to if they hope to beat Strasburg again.  They’ll have to if they want to spend Friday night in Richmond tossing and turning while trying to sleep in anticipation of Saturday’s Group A championship match.

They’re going to if they don’t want the trip to the Siegel to be a short one.

All of that is something that maybe a long grueling practice can fix and, with Claytor at the helm, you can bet your AMC membership card that’s going to happen today.

“It will be good for us if it’s a rough practice,” Guy said. “I think it’s going to get us more serious again.”

So, how about it, coach?

“[Today], at practice, we’re going to work pretty hard,” Claytor said.

That’s what the Green Hornets need. That’s what the fans wanted to hear.