Daily Sitka Sentinel

Volleyball Teams Compete in Out of Town Matches

By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Volleyball teams from both Sitka High School and Mt. Edgecumbe competed in their first formal matches this week. SHS lost 1-3 against the formidable 4A team from Thunder Mountain in Juneau. MEHS went 4-2 to capture third place in a tournament in Nikiski.
    First, Mt. Edgecumbe faced off against Anchorage Christian in Anchorage Thursday. ACS won the first two matches against the Braves. MEHS coach Mike Mahoney said that after the loss in the second match, “the girls woke up.” They won the next three matches and ended up beating ACS from behind, 3-2. From Anchorage, the Edgecumbe team drove down to Nikiski for their first big tournament of the season.
    Bethel fell to the Braves first, but next MEHS had to face the reigning state volleyball champion, Nikiski. In their first match up, Nikiski defeated Edgecumbe 0-2, with set scores of 27-25 and 25-18.
    Edgecumbe beat Grace Christian, but had to face Nikiski again.
    “It’s hard not to play the ghost of the team. Last year Nikiski was super strong,” Mahoney told the Sentinel. But in their second round against the defending champions, Mahoney said, the girls shook off the ghost, and played the team that “was on the court.” That attitude paid off, and the Braves beat Nikiski 2-0, with sets of 25-18 and 25-20.

Mount Edgecumbe Braves line up before one of their matches at Nikiski High School, Saturday. MEHS placed third in the tournament. (Photo provided by MEHS/Mike Mahoney)

    MEHS finally fell to 4A giant Soldotna 0-2 on Saturday, and wound up third overall in the weekend tournament.
    Mahoney was happy with how his girls played, saying “the best aspect of our team so far has been defense – the Lady Braves are not letting the ball hit the floor.”
    Mahoney was especially “happy with some of the senior leadership that we’re seeing on the team. (Co-captains) Shayna Warncke-Green and Vernae Raymoth are really stepping up.”
    On the Sitka High side of volleyball, the matches were a little closer to home this weekend. SHS faced off against Thunder Mountain in Juneau, where the Wolves put up stiff resistance but fell 1-3 in the end. The set scores of the four matches on Saturday were 21-25, 17-25, 28-26, and 16-25. Wolves’ coach Zaide Allen said that Thunder Mountain is the “best team in the region right now.”
    In spite of the loss, Allen was happy with her team, especially their improvement over the last three days of practice. She said that “this whole weekend, we missed less serves in all seven matches (three on Friday, four Saturday) than we did in one of the games last weekend.”
    Junior Jocelyn Brady led the Wolves in kills, followed by Morgan Feldpausch and Chloe Morrison. Rean Famini, Antonete Partido, and Tiffany Elefante were strong passers, and Allen said that “Tiffany notably had many diving saves for the ball.”
    Keeping the defense alive were Zaeda Dumag and Tamryn Suarez. Up in front row scoring kills and adding consistency were Taliah Fredrickson and freshman Ava Brady.
    “All of them were running on three hours of sleep,” Allen told the Sentinel, but “all of the girls walked away feeling like they had accomplished a lot.”
    This coming Friday and Saturday, Sitka High, Mount Edgecumbe, and Juneau-Douglas will face off in Sitka.