Brittany Wood doesn’t mind being compared to her older sister Allison.

After all, Allison was inducted into the South Whidbey High School Wall of Fame before this year’s homecoming game in October for her achievements in volleyball and fastpitch softball.

Even so, Brittany wants to have her own legacy at South Whidbey, apart from being Allison’s younger sister.

Brittany took another step toward Wall of Fame status. The younger Wood was voted to the Cascade Conference second team as a libero. She was pleased with the accolade, moving up from honorable mention last season, and appreciated the league-wide recognition.

“It was nice. It’s definitely something to be proud of,” Wood said. “It’s something that makes me feel good, because I played to my potential. It makes me want to push myself to get to first team next year.”

South Whidbey volleyball head coach Mandy Jones took exception to Wood missing out on first team.

“Brittany, hands down, should have made first team,” Jones said. “Brittany is one of the best defensive players I’ve ever seen in 13 years.”

Wood was surprised by the conference’s choice for “Player of the Year” in Archbishop Murphy High School junior libero Hannah Lisenmayer. She said her surprise stemmed from the other first-team nominations: two setters, two outside hitters and two middle hitters, but only one libero.

All-conference teams are voted on by the coaches, and the player with the most votes is the player of the year, followed by the next six highest vote-getters to form the first team, then the next six make second team. Players who received votes but miss out on both teams receive an honorable mention.

“I think they knew that I was good,” Wood said of her conference opponents. “We were the best two defensive people, as far as passing and digging goes.”

The junior libero/defensive specialist had a commanding year statistically. She set three school records this season.

Wood set the mark for most digs in a match — a record that South Whidbey had not established until this season — with 38 digs against Cedarcrest. The team co-captain also broke the record for most pass attempts with 461.

Still, her most impressive record over the season was in digs. Wood shattered the previous record of 213 digs with 373 — a difference of 160 digs (one more than her personal record and fourth-most all-time 159 digs in the 2009 season).

“I just love throwing my body across the floor to get the ball,” Wood said. “Because it’s fun and it looks cool.”

Also, she led the Falcons with 36 serving aces in 234 serves.

During the season Jones repeated her confidence in the team’s defense, something Wood credited to the back court’s pact to play hard and not let the ball hit the floor without them going after it.

“With Brittany in, I don’t have to worry about defense,” Jones said.

For the record, Wood more than doubled her sister’s 2009 season-high 166 digs. Now she’s glad to be out from under her sister’s shadow and peer/sister-coaching critique.

“If I were to mess up on anything she would yell at me, personally,” she said of her sister.

“There’s like a complete difference between me and her. I’m a lively person who will motivate people, and she’s really quiet and keeps to herself.”

“We’re just like two different types of leaders.”

The love of the game and commitment to play started when she watched one of her sister’s volleyball games years ago.

“I saw all these girls with their pretty little ribbons and they’re all matching,” Wood said. “I saw those girls and they’re having a great time and I was like, I want to play more because everyone was screaming and cheering and it became fun and exciting.”

Her performance factored into the varsity team voting her “Most Valuable Player.” The stats don’t tell the whole story for Wood, however. Her leadership led the team to give Wood the “Most Inspirational” award.

Wood describes herself as a loud person and her coach agrees. During a down season she tried to keep spirits high and regroup the team on the court.

It wasn’t as hard as it looked, though. According to Wood, the team’s chemistry came naturally from the five juniors who have played together since the seventh grade at Langley Middle School.

“She’s able to pick everyone up and keep everyone going,” said teammate Allisa Coupe. “She has a really loud voice out on the court, where she can tell us what to do and keep us all organized.”

Jones acknowledged that Wood’s experience, vision and communication skills all factor into her ability to lead the team. A year-round club volleyball player, she played for Northshore Juniors with her teammate and friend Linden Firethorne last year and will this year, too.

The experience she gained from playing against different competition gave Wood more confidence in her ability to play against top talent and lead a team.

“She just takes charge,” Jones said.

As for her future after South Whidbey, Wood wants to play volleyball at the collegiate level. The elder Wood plays volleyball for Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma.

Brittany is open to all the volleyball programs in Washington, from Pacific Lutheran to Western Washington University to Central Washington University. As long as she gets to play competitively, she’s interested. She didn’t rule out leaving the state, though, for somewhere with less rain and more sunshine.

With a 3.5 grade point average, Woods excels at school, too. Not surprisingly, her favorite classes are in the physical education department. Since she has already lettered in volleyball and fastpitch softball, she’s trying out for the basketball team this year in hopes of earning three-sport letter honors.

Jones has coached Wood since 2007. During that time, the two built a strong working relationship. Wood is doing her senior project on being a volleyball coach, and Jones is her project mentor.

With another season to come before she graduates, Wood has an expectation for the Falcon volleyball team to make the district playoffs next year.

She also set a goal to make first-team all-conference.

Seven players should return as seniors next season, a fact Jones is well aware of. Two of those players are all-conference talents, and Jones knows the rest of the team can compete at the same level.

“If we don’t go to state, I don’t know what the problem is,” Jones said.