TRUCK FIRE – Firefighters knock down a fire in a Ford Explorer truck in Arrowhead Trailer Park in the 1200 block of Sawmill Creek Road Saturday evening. One person received fire-related injuries and was taken to the hospital, Sitka Fire Department Chief Craig Warren said, and the truck was considered a total loss. The cause of the fire is under investigation, Warren said. The fire hall received the call about the fire at 5:33 p.m., and one fire engine with eight firefighters and an ambulance were dispatched, he said. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
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Daily Sitka Sentinel
Sitka Dominates Season’s First Rivalry Match
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Sitka High Lady Wolves scored a decisive victory over the Mt. Edgecumbe Lady Braves in the first rivalry match of the volleyball season, Tuesday at the B.J. McGillis Field House. Bolstered by rock-solid defense and strong hitting from a well-coordinated squad, Sitka earned a 3-0 win.
Sitka senior Chloe Morrison was happy that her team had a chance to test their strength against Edgecumbe after almost a year of waiting.
“It feels great, it feels like we haven’t played them fully in a long time just because of COVID and everything,” Morrison told the Sentinel after the game. “And both teams are completely different and there’s not a lot of returners on that team. I feel like we did really well with the team we had and just getting Zaeda (Dumag) back, it felt really good.”
Both Dumag and Morrison were sidelined by injury earlier in the season, but with Sitka’s full team brought to bear, the Lady Wolves won by a handy margin in all three sets of the best-of-five match, 25-11, 25-16, and 25-13.
Throughout the game, the Lady Braves struggled to crack through Sitka’s defense or to block hits from Morrison and her teammates, Ava Brady and Taliah Fredrickson.
Morrison said that close interpersonal bonds between team members push the Lady Wolves to perform well under pressure.
“We’re all really close in friendships too, so it makes it a lot easier to get along and work really well together… We moved our feet a lot better than we have in the past, just conditioning a lot and I feel like we were prepared,” she said.
After weeks of watching volleyball from the sidelines, Dumag was glad to return to the court.
“It feels really good to be back. Sitting and watching, it’s not the same. I’m feeling better and it’s nice to be back with teammates. We’re hyped,” Dumag said.
She noted that on defense her team adapted well to Edgecumbe’s pressure.
“We adapted our coverage, we didn’t doubt anyone. We committed to the ball,” she said.
While the Lady Braves sometimes upped the ante of the match and evened the score on several occasions, Dumag highlighted Sitka’s ability to rally and remain present in the moment rather than fixating on the past.
“You’ve got to forget the past points, you’ve got to move forward keeping it fresh, keep calm,” she said. Each time Edgecumbe rallied, Sitka pushed back and stretched their lead.
Sitka coach Zaide Allen was happy that her players stayed calm and level through the match, despite comeback attempts by the Lady Braves.
“We played really well on defense. They just played together the whole time,” the coach said. “They stayed at their level and they kept that level of play the whole night. And even when we had moments where our level of play went a little down we got it back up.”
Above all, Allen expressed confidence in her players’ ability to adapt and overcome.
“When that set of girls is out there,” Allen said, “I usually trust that they are going to pull it together and figure it out. When the core group that has been there for two years, I just know them to… play smart and figure it out… I trust that they’re going to make a mistake, and they’re going to know that they made a mistake, and then they’re going to be, “Oh yeah, OK,’ and then move on.”
For Mt. Edgecumbe senior Mia Anderson, Tuesday’s game was a welcome – if nerve-wracking – opportunity to return to volleyball after the pandemic severely limited the 2020 season.
“It’s just really fun to be back out there… I got to play (against Sitka) my sophomore year and some of my freshman year, and then junior year I didn’t get to play,” Anderson said. “And coming back I was a little bit nervous just because I hadn’t really seen them face to face on the court. But seeing them and once we started getting in the game, I started feeling back in it and it wasn’t as scary. It was definitely fun.”
Her younger sister, sophomore Tessa Anderson, saw the game as a chance to learn how the teams have changed over the last year.
“It was really fun to get out there… I know the people there. It was nice to see them also to see how they’ve improved and how I’ve improved,” Tessa Anderson said.
She said her teammates are good at keeping their spirits high despite a loss.
“We’re getting better about keeping our heads up and also keeping each other’s heads up and lifting each other,” she said.
Her older sister agreed.
“It’s so easy to get down on yourself and get annoyed, frustrated… but we just have good chemistry. We know how to hold each other up and not knock each other down and I think that’s really important,” Mia Anderson said.
Rie Christianson, an MEHS sophomore also from Sitka, noted that she was nervous at the beginning of the match but settled into a routine.
“I was really nervous most of the time but I really had a fun time. It was nice to see the girls that I’ve known before… Watching it, it seems so intimidating. But when you get on the court and really get settled, it’s not as scary,” Christianson said.
Much like athletes on both sides of the net, MEHS coach Mike Mahoney was happy for the return of volleyball.
“It’s good to be playing again. It feels really good, I mean we didn’t win tonight but we have a very young team this year, we only have four seniors on the team. We have a lot of players that played some in junior high but they haven’t played in high school because of COVID… Hopefully we’ll be able to pick up some points on Sitka next time we play, COVID willing. We’ve already been able to travel twice this year. We’re not winning a lot right now but it’s just great to be back on the court. And I couldn’t ask for a better group of girls to be working with,” Mahoney said.
Through the game, Edgecumbe’s young squad struggled to prevent errors.
“We have a couple really good servers and we also, being a young team that is learning a lot,” Mahoney said. “We have stretches when things are going well and they play well, and then they lose it for a little bit… With any team, unforced errors are a monster that we have to deal with and it’s hard for the girls not to get discouraged, but as they’re learning they have to learn from their mistakes.”
Mahoney noted that in recent matches against Eielson High, serving errors cost the Lady Braves dearly.
“We played against Eielson and beat them 3-0 and then the next night we lost 3-1 because we served 22 serves in the net,” the coach said.
Mahoney said quarantines also have cost the team some players.
“We’ve had a number of kids that have been in different stages of quarantine due to COVID, and so we have some players that would probably be on varsity playing with us but they haven’t had their ten practices yet,” he said.
Both local volleyball teams have this coming weekend off but travel south to Ketchikan to play again next week.
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20 YEARS AGO
March 2004
Businesses using the Centennial Hall parking lot testified Tuesday against a proposal to charge them rent in addition to the $200 annual permit fee. City Administrator Hugh Bevan made the proposal in response to the Assembly’s direction to Centennial Hall manager Don Kluting to try to close the $340,000 gap between building revenues and operational costs.
50 YEARS AGO
March 1974
Alaska Native Brotherhood Grand President William S. Paul Sr. will be special guest and speaker at the local ANB, Alaska Native Sisterhood Founders Day program Monday at the ANB Hall.