Gallery by Heather Belcher
The last few seasons, Shady Spring has owned the showdowns on the volleyball court with Woodrow Wilson.
Coming off a 2-0 win over the Flying Eagles Saturday at the Philip Barbour Tournament, the Tigers seemed to expect that trend to continue Tuesday when the two Raleigh County rivals battle once again.
The Flying Eagles, however, had other ideas.
Shady eventually won the best-of-five match, 3-1, in a spirited battle, but Woodrow Wilson made the visiting Tigers earn every point along the way.
“I think we learned a lesson tonight. You have to fight for every point and you can’t come into somebody else’s house and expect a cake walk,” Shady Spring head coach Kelly Williams said. “Not that that is what they thought necessarily, but that is how we came out. We got beat by Hedgesville this weekend and that was an eye opener. Tonight was not something that we were expecting.”
The home team jumped out to a 14-9 lead in the first set and appeared to have the visitors on the ropes before the Tigers started to find the mark.
Three aces from Camille Testerman sparked ten straight points leading to a 25-18 win for Shady Spring.
While the final burst in the opening set appeared to restore order in the series the way it had been over the past few years, set two showed it was going to be a fight to the end.
With the set tied 3-3, Woodrow Wilson ran off 14 straight points on it way to a commanding 25-13 win.
Salia Harris heated up in set two with four kills, but the key for the Flying Eagles came on the defensive end. Woodrow’s ability to get its hands on blasts from the Tigers along with strong play on the back row began to frustrate Shady Spring.
“They did a phenomenal job (at the net) and they dug-out everything that we hit at them. They were definitely prepared. They wanted to protect their house and it was obvious,” Williams said. “Kudos to them, they played a heck of a match and it was the whole team. It wasn’t just one individual on the other side.”
The play from her defense was exactly what Woodrow Wilson head coach Bre Rhodes was looking for from her team.
“I loved the a way they played tonight. We had a rough weekend, so to come back the Tuesday following and play like they did, it shows the potential that they have,” Rhodes said. “We worked on (blocking) at practice yesterday. We wanted to touch the ball and play defense with (our) feet. We wanted to keep the ball in play and force them to make the errors.”
After five ties in the early going of set three, Shady Spring ran off five straight points and appeared to be pulling away, only to see the Flying Eagles storm back behind the play of ZaMahya Moss up front.
Three kills and a block from Moss helped Woodrow even the set at 20-apiece before first-team all-stater Chloe Thompson answered for the Tigers. Two bombs from Thompson, who had six in the set, led to a 5-1 run down the stretch, giving Shady a 2-1 lead in the match.
The final set was nearly a carbon copy of the previous one with Shady Spring running off six straight points for a 15-9 lead. Meg Williams’ sixth kill of the set gave the Tigers their biggest lead at 19-11, but the Flying Eagles were not going away quietly.
Three kills by Alana Penn and two from Anya Hasan helped Woodrow close the gap to 21-18 before Rachel Mann found the mark for Shady.
A desperation stab by Lesleigh Ball that found its mark and two blocks from Moss pulled the home team within one point, but that was as close as it could get.
A kill by Thompson, along with a net violation and an ace from Williams gave Shady a 25-21 win.
“We saw tonight that regardless of how your record is, on any given night, you can have a dogfight and you have to be ready for it,” Williams said. “We have to go back and work on our defense and our serves. We have a lot to work on. I think our youth showed some tonight, but I also thought we let our emotions get a hold of us and kind of drive our play, me included. However, a win is a win. We will take it, but we will learn from it.”
Shady Spring is back in action Saturday at Bridgeport, while Woodrow Wilson travels to Spring Valley Wednesday.
