Lady Wolves' Michele Winger, right, hits the ball against Mt. Edgecumbe High in the Region V championship game, Nov. 3 at MEHS. Her sister, Andrea, stands ready on the left. (Sentinel photo by James Poulson)
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
After a volleyball season largely confined to Southeast, the Sitka High Lady Wolves faced a variety of northern teams at the state championship tournament last week in Anchorage. Sitka beat Nome in the tournament opener, but fell to Kenai Central and Homer and were eliminated from the bracket.
Win or lose, Sitka junior Michele Winger was happy for the opportunity to play up north.
“It was a really good experience, and (I’m) thinking about the upcoming years of us playing, and hoping that we get to go again and see the other teams improving as we do,” Winger said.
Her sister, Andrea Winger, said she’s already eager to see how the team looks next season.
“We also got closer as a team on that trip. Sadly it was our last trip… We’ll basically get a new team (in 2022), and I like getting to learn with other people and see what is your groove with them. But I’m going to miss our seniors,” Andrea Winger said.
Though the season is over, senior Taliah Fredrickson said that fact has yet to sink in.
“It really hasn’t registered with me. When we finished and just the game ended, how many games have I just finished? It doesn’t really feel real,” Fredrickson said. “I’m so close with all the people in the program it almost feels like it hasn’t finished.”
Sitka beat Nome in three one-sided sets, 25-15, 25-12 and 25-8.
The Nome game was a familiar experience for freshman Hayla Trigg.
“I was excited because I previously lived in Nome, so I was excited to see my future rivals. I was just excited to see them and it was fun to watch… I knew the whole team,” Trigg said.
Michele Winger said she started the game nervous, but soon fell into a rhythm.
“I was a little nervous, but once we got into it, it felt a little more comfortable,” she said.
After a straightforward win over Nome, the Lady Wolves faced an uphill struggle against Kenai Central. Sitka’s athletes were excited for the chance to go against Kenai again after playing them once early in the season.
“Kenai – I think we were most excited. We had watched them all season and they were actually our first game of the season, funny enough… It was almost a bit of a rivalry with them, more than we had with Edgecumbe I think this year,” Fredrickson said. “Like they had watched us, we had watched them, and we knew the coach too. And she had told our coach, ‘I’m excited to play you guys because I know you’ll get better.’ So it was definitely the most anticipated game, we really wanted to beat them. So I think we played super hard in that game, some of the best we’ve ever played.”
She described the Kenai game as “the best kind of volleyball. Because it’s those moments that you remember the most because it’s so stressful that you’re going all out and your mind is just going crazy. But how often do you have that?”
Sitka’s defense proved a formidable obstacle for Kenai to overcome.
“They have a lot of tall girls on their team and they have a strong right side hitter, so they have a good block,” Fredrickson said. “And just getting them up and a lot of little plays, we’re super scrappy where you get a hand out and get it up and stuff like that. We had a ton of that and we did a really good job covering.”
The team went into the game with high energy.
“It had a lot more energy than most of the games that we’ve played against other people, and I just thought it was a really fun game,” Trigg said.
Michele Winger seconded this.
“One of our most exciting games that we’ve been looking forward to,” she said.
Sitka won the first set 27-25, but Kenai rolled to a 25-12 win in the second. Kenai scored another 25-12 win in the third set, but the Wolves rebounded and won 25-17 in the fourth, forcing a tiebreaker set.
Kenai won in a 15-12 nailbiter. Overall, Kenai took second place in the 3A tournament. The Valdez Buccaneers claimed first.
Kenai went into the match overconfident, Michele Winger said.
“Maybe they’d been a little too cocky in assuming that they’d beat us. But us coming out and putting out all we’ve got, to show them that we want to win and we want to continue in the tournament, made them struggle a little bit… That was probably my favorite game,” she said.
All four athletes remembered Kenai players showing visible frustration on the court during the match as Sitka adapted their play-style to match the northern team’s hard-hitting offense.
Despite the loss, Andrea Winger was happy with her team.
“We didn’t leave disappointed or anything, we kept our heads high and I think we did great,” she said.
After the loss to Kenai, the Lady Wolves played against Homer, losing 2-3. Homer won the first two sets 25-18 and 25-22, but Sitka pushed back and won the next two sets 25-16 and 25-21. In the fifth set, Homer won 15-10 to seal their win.
Fredrickson noted the Homer game was intense because a loss meant elimination from the tournament.
“The Homer game was interesting. I think it was very scary because one game and you can be out,” she said.
Michele Winger highlighted the team’s comeback in the third and fourth sets.
“After the first two sets we noticed that we needed to get something done and we needed to push a little more to stay in the tournament,” she said. “Therefore we executed a lot of things our coaches have been telling us throughout the entire season to do… (I’m) excited on how well we worked together.”
The tournament provided a long-absent feeling of normalcy for Frederickson.
“I feel like it was actually pretty normal,” she said. “It was just nice, especially since we didn’t have it last year, just being there was a blessing, honestly. Just getting to go up there and play people, no matter what we placed, was better than last year and getting it canceled.”
While volleyball took center stage at the tournament, all four players said the smoothies at the gym cafe were a highlight of the trip as well.
Michele Winger hopes to play in the state championship again next year.
“It was a really good experience, and thinking about the upcoming years of us playing and hoping that we get to go again and see the other teams improving as we do,” she said.
