Wood keeps Garnet Valley firing in win over Ridley

RIDLEY TWP. — With so many hitters at her disposal, it’s easy to see how Garnet Valley junior setter Maddie Wood already has more than 1,200 assists in her career, even through only the equivalent of two full seasons of high school volleyball due to the coronavirus pandemic.

There’s senior Katelyn Duggery, juniors Kelly St. Germain, Marypearl Tienabeso, Kkaira Zakarian and Sara Weins. At one point this season, all have had a match with at least nine kills. Dugery, Tienabeso and Zakarian have all had matches with double-digit kills.

That’s a lot of options.

“It’s great,” Wood said. “I can definitely rely on all of them, and it’s great that they’re all different in their own way. It’s nice setting for them.”

That attack was the difference as the Jaguars remained undefeated in the Central League with a 3-0 triumph over Ridley Monday afternoon.

Zakarian led the attack with 11 kills. Weins had eight kills and two blocks. Tienabeso contributed seven kills and two blocks. St. Germain pitched in six kills in the 25-12, 25-13, 25-14 victory.

Wood, as usual, set the offense in motion with 33 assists. It was her sixth match of 30 or more helpers for the Jaguars (7-1, 5-0 Central League). She’s averaging better than 31 assists per match.

“She’s awesome,” Zakarian said of Wood. “She gives you the perfect set every time. She knows exactly what I can hit and she gets me where I have to be.”

As far as getting the ball to Wood so she can set up that plethora of hitters, well, that’s still a work in progress, Garnet Valley coach Mark Clark said.

“Our passing was better than the last game but we still have a ways to go,” Clark said. “The potential we have is there. We’re getting better and better on serve-receive and on defense. We’re moving more and talking more. It’s little things, that’s what we have to clean up.”

Wood seconded that sentiment.

“(Passing) is definitely one of our biggest weak points,” Wood said. “We’ve been working on it a lot in practice. We’re training really hard to get better at that every day. It’s not just our DSs (defensive specialists) or our liberos that have to pass, everyone has to pass so we work on that a lot and we’re getting better every day.”

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