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Battlefield claims a wild win over SJ
Yeah, it’s cliché, but sometimes, it’s oh-so-true: when two true rivals face off, pre-game statistics do not mean much because the game will be won and lost by heart.Stonewall Jackson versus Battlefield is one of those events. When both squads are all healthy and ready to go, forget the stats, because the game is guaranteed to be a showdown.
Oct. 16 in Haymarket was one of those nights.
The Raiders came back from a 21-12 deficit in the first game of the varsity girls’ Thursday volleyball match to claim a 26-24 victory. In the second game, Stonewall mounted another rally after trailing 17-11 to tie the game at 20-20 only to lose 26-24.
Battlefield ultimately went on to capture the match 3-2 (24-26, 26-24, 17-25, 25-22, 15-11) and secure a home game as a No. 4 seed in the first round of the Cedar Run District playoffs. Stonewall will be visiting Battlefield again in the first round as a No. 5 seed.
But what a match it was, especially for the Class of ’09 Bobcats. They celebrated senior night on what was their last-ever regular season home court match while their fans and those from Stonewall thundered with spirited cheers, claps, shouts and stomps the whole night.
“I will say it’s about heart. The seniors came together and the whole team came together around them,” said Battlefield coach Chris Lem.
So did the fans, for both teams.
“That’s what good volleyball should have at every home game. Good, exciting crowds, high school kids getting into it. That’s what it’s all about,” said Stonewall coach Matt Heyman.
Lem called a timeout in the second game when Battlefield trailed 22-20; his players had been so disorganized that they were colliding into each other all over the court as they pursued plays.
After the time out, junior libero Mikaela Whitaker made one of her signature digs, senior Lesley Chambers positioned herself for a set and senior blocker Nikkisha Walker hammed the ball so hard that it left three Raider players sprawled out on the floor after they all unsuccessfully attempted to deflect the spike.
On the next volley, senior setter Virginia Hyer found Chambers open for another attack, which tied the game up at 22-22.
Though Stonewall was able to tie Battlefield at 24-24, the Bobcats never fell behind and closed the game with consecutive points by Chambers on a spike and an ace serve.
“We do that sometimes. We just get down and break up kind of. But we always end up being able to pull it together,” said Battlefield junior outside hitter Kelly Milione.
That victory kept Battlefield from trailing 0-2 proved to be quite important as Stonewall had a more successful comeback in game three with Amy Kalajainen continuously ripping her opposition on offense and defense.
She broke a 14-14 tie with a block on Milione and earned two more kills before the game ended on a serve into the net by Hyer.
“Well, we just try to take every play and feed off of it in every way we can. So, every time we got a block, we just got more and more excited and more and more pumped up, so I think that helped us,” said Kalajainen.
Unforced errors by Battlefield and tip-hits from Brittney Orsborn helped Stonewall get back into the first game as consistently, fundamentally-sound playing did in the third game.
“I was thinking they were going to hit and they did a lot of tipping which kind of threw me off for a little bit, but I managed to get over,” said Milione.
Stonewall ended up losing game four in part because of small-ball. For instance, a serve by Katia Arze just missed the back left corner of Battlefield and was called out, giving the Bobcats a 24-22 advantage. On the next play, Stonewall was slapped with a penalty for hitting the ball four times, ending the game.
What had been remarkable about the Raiders' play in the first four games though was, win or lose, they had always rallied from considerable deficits to pull at least even with the Bobcats.
“You want to win all your games, but if there’s a rivalry between two schools, you really want to win,” said Stonewall’s Katherine Nesheim. “We just picked up our intensity and our coach told us we needed to push hard because this was our last game before districts. And, so, we just, we all put our minds to it and pushed ourselves.”
Battlefield finally put an end to that streak in game five, taking the lead from a Hyer ace on the first serve and never looking back afterward, even as Stonewall pulled within two points twice late in the game.
“Well, I’ve been preaching from day one about volleyball IQ,” said coach Heyman. “We know who their best player is, it’s the libero, so volleyball IQ says, ‘Keep it away from her.’ In the games that we did not do well, which we lost, we were serving to the libero, hitting at the libero. So, volleyball IQ: put the ball where she isn’t. It’s not a hard concept.”
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