The Atlee boys’ volleyball team has not been feeling much brotherly love recently.

Last week, Highland Springs’ brothers Quentin and George Moore teamed up to hand the Raiders their first loss of the season. On Tuesday, it was Hanover brothers, senior Grandon and freshman William Atwood, who teamed up to repeat the feat, beating the Raiders in a tie-break match that played out as a nearly two-and-one-half hour volleyball war on Atlee’s home court.

In the match the Atwood brothers combined for 44 kills and 23 digs with Grandon carding 32 kills alone.

Hanover head coach Mike Rohr found it simple to sum up the play of the Atwoods. “Awesome,” he said. “One word; awesome. I’m just sad that Grandon’s a senior already and I’m not going to have them for a couple more years together because they’re awesome.”

Hanover ground out the see-saw battle to win, 20-25, 25-20, 21-25, 25-23, 15-12.
Throughout the night, the theme for the Hawks was resiliency. After falling in three straight sets to Atlee in their previous meeting, the match looked as if it would be a repeat loss for Hanover.

The first game was virtually tied throughout until Atlee went on a 4-0 run to open a 16-11 gap. Following a kill from Grandon Atwood, the Raiders reeled off four more points on a kill and block from Justin Crane, an ace from Jordan Stringfellow and a kill from Jonathan Sperlazza for a 20-12 lead.

But then Hanover began showing its ability to bounce back, trimming the lead to 23-19 before eventually falling 25-20.

The second game was a mirror of the first, with Hanover jumping out to 20-16 lead before Atlee rallied to climb within 22-19 on a kill from Kyle Rogers, who finished the night with 14. But Hanover closed out the game on a kill from Grandon Atwood for a 25-20 win.

The third game was tight throughout and tied at 20 when Atlee ran off four straight points capped by the lanky Rogers dumping the ball on the Hawks for a 24-20 lead before the Raiders closed out the contest 25-21.

In the fourth, it appeared Atlee was going to run away with the match, jumping out to a 5-1 lead capped by one of Robert Chilcoat’s 15 kills on the night. But once again the Hawks bounced back, tying the game at five on an ace from libero Zach Carey.

The Raiders pulled away to a 15-11 lead but back came the Hawks once more, outscoring Atlee 6-1 to take a 17-16 lead. From there the two teams ground it out until Hanover came out on top 25-23 knotting things at two games each.

With the match on the line, Atlee roared out of the starting gate in the tie-break game, jumping to a 7-2 lead that was largely assisted by Hanover errors; putting a shot in the net and three attempted kills out-of-bounds.

Despite seeing their opponents nearly halfway to a win in the match, the Hawks did not throw in the towel, which made the difference.

“I think the biggest thing was we kept our heads,” Grandon Atwood said. “We didn’t let it get to us. We let them have their run then we came back with ours.”

Led by kills from Patrick Carroll, William Atwood, Bryce Renick and Grandon Atwood, Hanover outscored Atlee 8-3 to knot the first-to-15 game at 10.

A kill by Kody Tingler pushed the Raiders ahead but Hanover bounced back to retie the game when Carroll, who had struggled throughout most of the night, made a diving dig to keep the ball alive for a Hawks’ point.

Atlee retook the lead 12-11 on a kill from Rogers, needing only three points to win the match, but Grandon Atwood made sure that did not happen.

Hanover reeled off four consecutive points, three on kills from Atwood from the back line, to win the match 15-12.

“Oh, that was huge,” Grandon Atwood said following the win. “We knew it was going to be a long game but we were hoping for that really because we know we’re the best conditioned team in the district. We figured if we could outlast the first three games we could take it to them.”

Despite losing their second game in back to back weeks, Atlee head coach Michelle Black saw improvement in her team from a week ago. “We played better as a team, especially compared to last week at Highland Springs,” she said. “We really fell apart (at Highland Springs) and they didn’t fall apart this time and that’s a big improvement. We’re young so we’re learning a lot.”

After starting the season 3-2 in Capital District play, Hanover is now back in the hunt for the regular season title. Atlee, Hanover and Highland Springs each have two district losses with the regular season ending next week. “This is huge for us,” Rohr said. “This keeps us where we wanted to be, which is having a chance to win the district.”

Atlee should be favored in its final two matches therefore putting a lot of weight on the Hawks performance.

Hanover will be favored against Varina on Thurs. but they then close out their season at Highland Springs on Tues. Oct. 21. The match will most likely decide which team will tie Atlee for the regular season district title.

Hanover————- 20 25 21 25 15
Atlee——————- 25 20 25 23 12

Highlights: H- Grandon Atwood, 32 kills, 12 digs; Nick Brown, 57 assists; Patrick Carroll, 13 digs, William Atwood, 12 kills, 11 digs, 4 blocks, 2 assists. A- Robert Chilcoat, 15 kills, Kyle Rogers, 14 kills; Just Crane 46 assists.
Records: Hanover 8-2 Capital, 13-5; Atlee 8-2, 14-2