By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
The Sitka High Lady Wolves volleyball squad again went undefeated in six sets against the Mt. Edgecumbe team this weekend. Sitka High won 25-4, 25-17, and 25-21 on Friday, and repeated the performance 25-21, 25-18, and 25-12 Saturday.
The local teams celebrated their seniors over the weekend as well, and even played in front of a small audience for the first time in the season.
Wolves coach Zaide Allen was happy with her team.
“It was a good weekend of volleyball,” she said.
As she has throughout the season, Allen praised her players’ ability to play consistently.
“They definitely played consistent and even having injuries and having a couple things moving around they still managed to play together,” she said.
Part of that consistency this year has manifested in a low number of errors.
“We served really well. We had very few errors. I think we had a good amount of aces we hit consistently. We didn’t hit a lot out. Our passing was doing well but our serve-receive was not as strong as it has been in the past, which has been attributed to that we’ve had some injuries,” Allen said.
She highlighted Jocelyn Brady, who led her team in kills, as well as Morgan Feldpausch, who notched the second most kills for the Lady Wolves.
The coach said Feldpausch did this despite the fact she didn’t play in her usual position.
“She was playing a position she hasn’t played much of this year and she really stepped up and played it well,” Allen said.
Sitka High also took a moment at the game to honor their seniors, Jocelyn Brady, Antonete Partido, Rean Famini, Emily Fenno, Tamryn Suarez, and Morgan Feldpausch.
Allen praised the seniors for their resilience in a unique and difficult volleyball season.
“The energy and positive attitude of the seniors, even though their season isn’t what it’s supposed to be,” Allen said.
Across the bridge, Mt. Edgecumbe coach Mike Mahoney said his team has improved through the season.
“We’re still working with our young team, and they are learning as much as they can. They continue to work on reducing their free balls, which we did very well. The first match that we played against Sitka back in September we had 48 free balls over the net and on Friday we had only 23, and 25 on Saturday,” Mahoney said. He said that when his team does send free balls over the net, they tend to come back very hard.
Mahoney cited Angelina Ong, his libero, and one of his two experienced varsity players, as a critical part of the team. A libero is a defensive and passing specialist in the back row. The coach said that even from the back row Ong has notched a number of points this year, a major improvement from last year.
“Angelina Ong, our back row libero, she’s a defensive specialist, and last year when she would do a roll from the back row most of the time it would sail out deep… It’s nice (now) that she is not tall because if her hand goes over the height of the net it would be a back row attack and she can’t do that,” Mahoney said.
Ong’s passing stood out to her coach.
“She has been passing phenomenally, unbelievable passing from Angelina, some of the best passing I‘ve ever seen,” he said.
The MEHS squad is suffering the loss of a number of experienced players who didn’t return to school this fall because of the pandemic. Mahoney fielded only two experienced varsity players this season, Ong and Brody Wysocki.
He added that Analyse Conforti has also become a mainstay of his team as well.
“She does not make mistakes. She doesn’t create a ton of points, but she doesn’t make mistakes,” he said.
Mahoney also highlighted Laci Prince, a senior new to volleyball.
“She just came out and played volleyball for the first year this year as a senior. And I hate to say it for the 12 millionth time, but I wish I had her these last four years. Every week she gets better and better,” Mahoney said.
Like Sitka, Edgecumbe also recognized senior players: Wysocki, Ong, Sherilyn Johnson-Edwards, Prince, Cameryn Olson, Kennedy Langlie, Kylie Rose-Wooton, Erik Toshavik, Margaret Ivan-Williams, and Courtney Atseriak.
Looking forward to the late season, Mahoney said he hopes to reduce his team’s unforced errors.
“Just playing together as a team and continuing to do the age-old quest of reducing unforced errors,” he said.
Since local teams began playing in September, they have done so in empty gyms as a precaution against the spread of COVID-19. But this weekend, families of Sitka High players and some friends of Mt. Edgecumbe athletes were allowed to attend.
The Wolves’ coach appreciated the crowd.
“It was really fun, really nice having the parents be able to be there, and having them be able to watch their daughters play. It was really special… It felt more back to normal, it just felt normal,” Allen said.
She said that in a traditional season, the Lady Wolves would have been a state-level contender.
“It’s a huge bummer and I think that this team had a shot to go up there and play really well… They’re playing at the level they’re playing it, I think they would have done really well at state. But it is what it is, and safety is a concern as well,” Allen said.
Both the Wolves and Braves head south to Ketchikan for the last regular season matches this weekend. The Region V Tournament is scheduled Nov. 5 to 7 in Sitka. The state championship is canceled due to the worsening virus outbreak in the state.
