WILSON EXTRA: Finding the answer

FISHERSVILLE

A match removed from its best outing of the year, Wilson Memorial made a 180-degree turn and played one if it’s worst.

In Tuesday’s quarterfinal round of the Group A volleyball championships, the Green Hornets survived what would have been a huge upset bid at the hands of the Northumberland Indians even if the lopsided scores didn’t indicate such.

Wilson opened the night in fine fashion but complacency reared its ugly head.

The hosts ran out to a 14-3 lead as Kala Guy went on a killing spree, smacking seven kills and two dinks in the opening spurt. Northumberland played the Green Hornets even for the rest of the game but it could not climb out of the crater it dug for itself early.

Wilson had to fight for its playoff life after Game 1 as the Indians stayed right with the Region B champs for the final two games. If not for a couple of turning points by a couple of key players, the rematch with Strasburg on Friday may not been set.

With Northumberland leading 13-11 in Game 2, Guy delivered a scoring spike — a deep cross-court kill from her outside hitter position — to take the service away from the Indians. Senior Christine Coffield’s ace knotted the score at 13 and Guy followed with another kill to give Wilson its first lead of the game.

Guy got tangled in the net on a block attempt and Wilson lost serve, but she got it right back with a blast that took the finish off the floor.

In stepped Julia Aronson, who had replaced Jessica Arbogast several points earlier. The senior delivered five straight points — including two aces — and Guy nearly hit the rafters on a block and added another kill as Wilson moved up 20-14.

“I don’t get many opportunities,” Aronson said, “and I have to give it my all when I get in there. I need to show coach [Claytor] that I can play, too. I can stay focused even when I come off the bench.”

Aronson and Guy lit the fire that led to the Game 2 win and the 2-0 lead.

Northumberland forced the Green Hornets into a different brand of volleyball — starting midway through Game 1.

“It’s a different style of play that [Northumberland] brought,” Coffield said. “It was different than anything we have seen. Our timing was off, our hitting was off, everything was off.”

And Claytor agreed. “We had too many lookers and not enough movers. Almost out of despair, I changed things up in Game 2 when we just couldn’t get going and it just worked out,” she said. “I asked them during a timeout, ‘Where’s that Region B championship team that played Friday night?’ No one had an answer.”

Wilson also struggled in Game 3 to find its true identity. Trailing 16-18, the Green Hornets got on track as Noël Bartley came through with a kill from the outside and Coffield followed with another. 

After a side-out on a service error, Bartley and Guy went back-to-back with spikes and the Indians never recovered as Northumberland committed four errors on the final five points to hand Wilson the match.

“We can’t play like that against Strasburg on Friday,” Coffield said. “We’ll get killed.”

Guy thought that Wilson was overconfident going into Tuesday’s contest.

“I think we had a big head going in — we’ve been playing so great,” she said. “Playing like this makes us refocus on what we have to do on Friday. We have to change what we’re doing.”

Bartley felt that the team didn’t play to its expectations.

“We played down to [Northumberland’s] level,” she said. “We did not play our game at all.  A win is a win, after all, but I’m not very happy about it.”

Neither was Claytor.

“This was ugly.  And as well as they have been playing …,” but she couldn’t find the finish.  “I wish I knew what the answer was.”

A rematch in Richmond is the only thing standing in the way of a second state championship appearance for the Green Hornets. Coach, you’ve got three days to figure it out.