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Varsity (26-6, 3-0 in District) started the week ranked:
vs. Spring Woods
First up was a Tuesday home contest against Spring Woods. Stratford sprinted out to an early lead and never let up. Multiple points by Sophie Corbeil, Gwen Koss, Sarah Hickman, Hailey Tacker, and Emma Dunwoody, and stingy defense by Izzy Rodriguez saw the Spartans open up a massive 23-3 lead. Varsity closed out the set 25-3 with strong kills by Addy Lanning and Sophie Corbeil.
Stratford revved up its service game in the second set with a flood of service aces by Kiki Sykes, Ariel Robles, Rachel Ashby, and Jaelyn Chen. Adding in kills by Chloe Popkin, Sarah Hickman, Audrey Hilberth, Sophie Corbeil, and Emma Dunwoody, the Spartans closed out the set 25-9 on a run of kills by Avery Kent.
Gwen Koss opened the third set with a pair of kills, set up by great digs by Audrey Cook and Chloe Nguyen. An Izzy Rodriguez ace (one of two by her in the set) and an Ashley Jones kill made it 8-1. A Hailey Tacker kill from a Jaelyn Chen assist brought the score to 11-3. From that point, Stratford scored points off aces, blocks, and kills from 8 different players, led by 3 kills and one block by Addy Lanning. A Gwen Koss tip mercifully ended the set and match at 25-7.
vs. Cy Ridge
On Friday, Varsity hosted the Cy Ridge Rams in front of an energetic crowd, including several members of the football, boys’ basketball, and baseball programs, a number of students from Rummel Creek Elementary, and our enthusiastic Varsity Cheerleaders.
An Audrey Cook precision set for a Sophie Corbeil kill followed by a Sarah Hickman kill had Stratford in an early first set lead at 3-2. Varsity never looked back. Kills and blocks from Emma Dunwoody, Sarah Hickman, Sophie Corbeil, Hailey Tacker, Avery Kent, and Chloe Popkin hailed down on Cy Ridge until the Spartans had secured the first set 25-10.
The second set brought no relief to the Rams. Cy Ridge was forced to call timeout at 13-4 following a strong service run by Izzy Rodriguez, kills from Emma Dunwoody and Avery Kent, and a block from Sophie Corbeil. Kills by Sophie Corbeil and Avery Kent closed out the second set 25-12.
The third set started slower, but once again the Rams were forced to call timeout at 15-10 after a monster block by Sarah Hickman and Hailey Tacker and a kill by Sophie Corbeil. After the timeout, points by Sarah Hickman, Avery Kent, Izzy Rodriguez, Emma Dunwoody, and Sophie Corbeil brought the match to a close at 25-12. It was a thoroughly dominating performance against a really solid Cy Ridge squad that is itself in the playoff hunt.
While kills, aces, and blocks may have scored the points, Stratford’s defense and setting made it all happen against Cy Ridge. Defensive stalwarts Izzy Rodriguez, Rachel Ashby, Chloe Popkin, and Sophie Corbeil rarely let a ball drop in, holding the District's individual leader in total kills to only 6 kills in the entire match. Meanwhile, Spartan hitters frequently had the ball teed up for clean kills thanks to pinpoint sets by Audrey Cook and Jaelyn Chen.
In a season full of team success, the team paused to celebrate two great individual accomplishments. Audrey Cook reached the 1,000 assist mark in her high school career, and Izzy Rodriguez reached the 1,200 dig milestone in her high school play. Congrats to Audrey and Izzy for achieving these great feats!
This coming week, Varsity (28-6, 5-0 in District) hosts Memorial on Tuesday and travels to Jersey Village on Friday. These matches will close out the first half of District play. Both teams are in the playoff hunt. Both games start at 5:30 pm.
LETS BE LOUD AND BEAT MEMORIAL.
This week’s stats include:
Sophie Corbeil: 19 kills, 3 blocks, 9 digs
Sarah Hickman: 16 kills, 6 blocks
Avery Kent : 13 kills, 2 blocks
Emma Dunwoody: 13 kills, 8 blocks
Chloe Popkin: 9 kills, 15 digs
Izzy Rodriguez: 18 digs, 10 assists, 2 aces
Audrey Cook: 34 assists, 10 digs
Jaelyn Chen: 27 assists, 4 digs
Gwen Koss: 6 kills, 7 digs, 2 aces
Kiki Sykes: 4 aces, 7 assists