Barrow takes top honors in debut appearance at JIVE tournament
- Mark Sabbatini
- 17 hours ago
- 5 min read
Team from Alaska‘s northernmost city defeats Metlakatla, JDHS and West Anchorage — all in straight sets — to claim title at two-day tournament
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
They were already the top team when they arrived — geographically speaking, at least — and by the time they left there was no doubt they were tops competitively as well.
Barrow High School dominated elimination play at the annual Juneau Invitational Volleyball Extravaganza (JIVE) tournament to claim the Gold Bracket title with three straight-set wins Saturday. The Whalers defeated Metlakatla High School in the opening quarterfinal match, Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé in the semifinal and West Anchorage High School in the finale.
"Barrow’s just good at everything," said Kamella Rexford, a sophomore outside hitter for the team’s varsity squad. "Even though we’re small we have a lot of athletes."
The students from the northernmost U.S. town, now known as Utqiagvik due to a voter referendum in 2016, also have an advantage over their peers when traveling to tournaments because they do a lot of it — and frequently over longer distances. The Whalers record of 28-7-2 as of Monday includes 24 away games, according to MaxPreps.
But coming to the JIVE tournament was a first for the school, with the invitation issued after the Crimson Bears visited Utqiagvik last year to participate in the Whalers Invite volleyball tournament. Barrow coach Seko Unutoa said visits between the two schools may become an annual thing.
"I think it’s going to be a long-term relationship that’s in the works," he said.
Unutoa and his players predicted Juneau and West Anchorage would be their toughest opponents among the eight schools in the tournament, which is indeed how the games played out.
Pool play resulted in West Anchorage and Juneau claiming the top two spots in the six-team Gold Bracket, thus allowing them to skip the quarterfinal round of the single-elimination tournament. Third-ranked Barrow easily defeated Metlakatla, then defeated Juneau in two sets with identical 25-20 scores that played out very differently.
Barrow jumped out to an early lead in the first game and, while Juneau narrowed the gap some, the Whalers kept the Crimson Bears at bay. Juneau jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the second game, only to see Barrow surge strongly past them to a 12-7 lead before the teams evened out the rest of the way.
The loss resulted in Juneau finishing in a tie with Sitka High School for third place in the tournament, which Braith Dihle, a Crimson Bears senior, said was encouraging as the team looks ahead to the rest of the season.
"I think we did really well," she said. "I think we rose to the occasion, which is something we've been working on, and taking every team like super-seriously and being prepared is something we've really been focusing on. I think that last game, even though we didn't win, it was a good performance for us, which is something I feel good about and I feel happy."
JDHS coach Jody Levernier said the team played some of its best volleyball of the season.
"They were moving, they were talking, they were playing a little bit scrappy and picking balls up off the floor that we haven't been getting normally," she said. "We've struggled a little bit in games, playing the way they were playing in practice, where they've been playing a little bit tentative and safe. And I don't think they played that way at all in this game. I think they went all out, they hit the ball hard, they went after everything on the floor. So I'm not disappointed. Barrow’s a really good team, and they hit the ball super hard and they pass the ball really well."
Unutoa said his players got a lot of new experiences playing in the Juneau tournament for the first time.
"This one is awesome, because we get to see a majority of the Southeast teams that we won't see at all during the season," he said. "For example, Ketchikan, Haines, Skagway — those are teams here that we don't get to play through the course of the season unless we're down here in Southeast tournaments."
The sense was the Whalers would be among the big contenders at this year’s JIVE, Unutoa said.
"We know Juneau was going to be tough — we knew coming in it was going to be one of the top teams. But we played West last week and evened that with them."
The title game between Barrow and West Anchorage indeed started as high-wire, high-tension drama as the Eagles rallied from a 24-21 deficit to tie the Whalers at 24 during the first set. Both teams managed to rally from being down at set point by prevailing during extended exchanges, but Barrow ultimately broke the deadlock with a 28-26 win.
The second set, while still a challenge with West Anchorage close enough to be a threat, went easier for Barrow as the team won the set 25-22 to claim the JIVE 2025 title.
West Anchorage claimed a redemption prize of sorts with its junior varsity squad winning the Silver Bracket title game over Wrangell High School in straight sets.
The Barrow players said they didn’t see much of Juneau after arriving Thursday, aside from exploring downtown and making a few supermarket trips. But they did get plenty of questions from their peers in more southern towns, which is common during their many road trips.
"They always ask how cold it is," said Adreanna Miguel, a junior for the Whalers. "And they always ask us about the midnight sun."
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
Gallery of photos from 2025 Juneau Invitational Volleyball Extravaganza
(all by Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Independent)
