Bears paws swat Lady Braves from net play
- Klas Stolpe
- Sep 12
- 6 min read
JDHS controls the home court action over Mt. Edgecumbe
By Klas Stolpe
Juneau Independent
The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears volleyball team was effective at the net in a 3-1 match win Friday over the visiting Mt. Edgecumbe Lady Braves in the George Houston Gymnasium.
“I think at first we were kind of opposite from when we played Ketchikan and were excited last week,” senior outside hitter Lavinia Ma’ake said. “I think we were really mellow this game and we tried to be patient. I mean, it may not look like it, but compared to Ketchikan we definitely were. The main thing is to always have fun and to be able to work together and kind of like interlink our minds. Definitely we have that connection that we have been able to grow with our setters. ‘O’ (junior Liliane Veikoso) is new, but she is just so easy to connect with, her personality, and she brings that energy to the court. It is just all fun, really.”
JDHS let the first set slip away 27-25, but finished out the match in a trio of wins 25-11, 25-18 and 25-12.
The Crimson Bears ran a 6-2 offense to start the match, meaning two setters in the back row to fashion the offensive attacks. Junior setter Brie Powers and senior libero Cambry Lockhart were key in the back as well.
In the second set Veikoso stayed in the front because of her net skills, which resulted in less movement on and off the court for the Crimson Bears, simplifying the game.
“I think in the first set we just seemed a little off,” Levernier said. “So we just tried to simplify it and we kept ‘O’ on because she plays a good front row as well. But then she just hit from the front row and didn’t set, and our setter that came in went into the back row.”
The Crimson Bears kept the Lady Braves on their heels as they spiked the ball with power or used soft tips to exploit open spaces.
Senior middle blocker Gwen Nizich tallied 13 scoring shots in the match, including four blocks, the majority of kills coming from blasting the ball off opposing blockers’ hands out of bounds. Senior outside hitter Braith Dihle and junior outside hitter Lavinia Ma’ake found spaces to put down their kills, scoring 10 and 9, respectively, and junior middle blocker June Troxel mixed up both strategies with six scoring shots.
“They had a slightly different lineup than the last time we played them,” Nizich said. “And their team consists of two lefty hitters that were fairly strong, and so at the net we were mainly focused on reading their hits and closing our blocks, lining them up with our shoulders. I’ve been working with my setters on new plays and I think our chemistry has really grown, and trusting them has really led to success.”
Veikoso served JDHS to a 5-0 lead to start the match with a tip score by Nizich, an ace and a kill by Dihle.
Dihle had the next service rotation and put JDHS up 8-2, and Lockhart and junior defensive specialist Leila Cooper took service turns for a 13-4 lead.
MEHS battled back with a three-score service run by freshman Zoya Tuzroyluk (MEHS is a boarding school. Tuzroyluk is from Point Hope) and a six-point run by junior Charity Mila (from Barrow) who tallied four aces for a 17-16 lead.
Veikoso served JDHS to a 21-17 advantage, including two aces and a block by senior Natalia Harris, but MEHS senior Tahira Akaran (from Kotlik) served three times on possession, including two aces, to tie the set at 21-21.
Troxel killed for possession and the lead and both teams added a mishit to give JDHS a 23-22 advantage. A Crimson Bears’ mishit tied the game and MEHS senior Karen Christopher (from New Stuyahok) served an ace for a 24-23 advantage.
Troxel killed another shot to tie the game at 24. Both teams added errors to tie at 25, but JDHS served into the net to trail 26-25 and MEHS’ Tuzroyluk aced the set winner for 27-25.
JDHS would take control of the match in set two with Dihle serving to a 5-2 lead, including kills by Nizich and Veikoso, and Ma’ake serving to a 14-5 advantage, which included kills by Troxel and Veikoso. Troxel, Veikoso and Dihle finished out the set from the service line, with the last three points registered by two blocks by Nizich and a Dihle kill for the 25-11 score.
“Honestly I am just trying to set up an offense,” Veikoso said. “Being able to give my hitters something to hit. Then when I’m serving basically all I do is ask my other players if they see an opening, give me a number to serve and I’ll serve it. We do a lot of target serving. They basically tell me where to serve and I serve it.”
Leading 7-4 in set three, JDHS saw MEHS pull to 7-6 on two Crimson Bears mishits, but Lockhart steadied the offense with an ace. After a kill by MEHS junior Gracelynn Friske (from Sitka), the Crimson Bears were awarded the ball on a Lady Braves service error and Powers served to a 12-6 advantage, which included kills by Nizich, Ma’ake and Veikoso.
The two sides would exchange scoring runs until Ma’ake hit for a 21-15 lead, and Lockhart served to 23-15 on a scoring floater and a hard ace. JDHS would win the set 25-18.
“I like to switch it up a lot,” Lockhart said. “I like to start out strong because my short serve is usually weaker and it is tougher to get the short serve just right over the net, kind of doink it down in there…So I usually start strong and make it hard to read my serves, not put them in the same spot every time and at the same level. At the end they (MEHS) kind of creeped in a lot and so I was trying to hit deep. I didn’t do that very well, but other than that I served pretty normal.”
JDHS had first serve in the fourth set, and with Veikoso at service, Dihle killed twice and sophomore outside hitter Nellie Stowers blocked a score for 3-0.
The two sides exchanged errors for scoring points before Lockhart served to 10-2, which included scores by Troxel, Stowers and Ma’ake.
Point exchanges continued with JDHS holding on to a 17-10 advantage when MEHS junior Zereah Henry (from Point Lay) killed to pull to 17-11 and senior Tatiana Otton (from Koyuk) killed for 17-12.
A MEHS service error gave possession back to JDHS and Lockhart served seven straight, which included an ace. Troxel added a tip score, Dihle two touches that found space and three hard hits from Ma’ake, including the match point for the win 25-12.
“Tonight is the first time we tried this rotation,” MEHS coach Margo Livermore said. “We’re trying something new. The first game we did much better with our serving and we struggled with our serving the next few games. Working on not serving the ball out would be great and also just being smarter with our hits, working on reading hitters, and moving on defense and trusting teammates.”
The two sides face off again Saturday at 5 p.m.
“I’m happy on how we don’t give up,” JDHS coach Jody Levernier. “And it doesn’t matter if we are down points or we lost, we always come back ready to fight again. Whether it is in-between points or in-between sets. We were like that the weekend before, every time we have played really. We just have that. I don’t know if you can teach that, we just never give up.”
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@gmail.com.
