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Crimson Bears spike Wolves in season opener
- Klas Stolpe
- 2 minutes ago
- 7 min read
Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé defends home volleyball den against Sitka
By Klas Stolpe
Juneau Independent
A wonderful set by Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé senior Liliane Veikoso led to an emphatic match-winning kill shot for junior outside hitter Ruby Koski as the Crimson Bears swept the visiting Sitka Wolves 3-0 (25-15, 25-21, 25-17) on Friday inside the George Houston Gymnasium.
“I don’t know,” Koski said. “I just hit it. O (Veikoso) set it. She is a great setter. I knew we were going to run something. I just kind of went for it. It was great. Just lots of fun… I was, honestly, just having a lot of fun. I was just excited to see how we were all going to do because it was kind of a new group, because all of our seniors were out from last year. It was just really fun.”
The more experienced Crimson Bears did not appear to be playing their first games of the season as they kept control of the action over the younger Wolves’ pups, a majority of whom were in their first varsity games.
“We have three starting freshmen and three starting sophomores and one junior and two seniors, so we are super young,” Sitka coach Zaide Allen said. “I liked a lot of what I saw. This was three of their first high school games in varsity. It is kind of cool. I think with this group, they are very competitive and I think that they want to play the best teams. They don’t want to play lower teams and win, they want to go and work to be the best. They are very, very competitive.”
That showed as the first point of the match saw Sitka junior Kailee Brady kill a shot. The point was answered by a similar athletic hit by JDHS senior Haley Gilbert, and revisited again by Sitka freshman Averie Haavig for a 2-1 lead.
After a service error by the Wolves, JDHS’ Gilbert took every ounce of momentum from the visitors with a run of 15 straight serves for a 17-4 lead. That run included her three aces and a kill. Senior June Troxel added another kill, a block and a scoring tip shot in the run. A variety of other Crimson Bears’ shots were mishandled by the Wolves.
“I remember when I was on JV they would always kill me with their serves,” Gilbert said. “And I was like, ‘You know what, this is senior year first game, got to give it back to them, for what they gave me.’ And I am just happy they went over. I was looking for who had not been passing good. Because I know, for me personally, they get in your head, and when they get in their head it is harder for them to pass. So if you can get in their head they are not going to pass.”
Sitka got out of the onslaught with a kill by outside hitter Addie Marx. The two sides would exchange three small scoring rallies before JDHS’ Veikoso killed a shot for the game-one win 25-15.
Both teams are defending Southeast Conference Region V champions, JDHS in the 4A division and Sitka in 3A. Both would show flourishes of those titles, but the talented Crimson Bears outlasted the hearty Wolves.
Game two opened with Sitka senior Joey Agullana serving a point, Brady killing a shot and senior Bristol Clifton blocking a shot for a 3-0 lead, but a kill by Gilbert gave JDHS possession and senior Brianna Powers served to a 7-3 lead that included four aces.
JDHS would never trail again and went through small service runs with Gilbert, Veikoso, Troxel, and senior Macy Summers to open up a 20-12 lead, accented by a Gilbert ace.
Troxel should tip for a 22-15 lead after a Sitka service error, and serve for a 23-15 lead. Sitka scored with a Marx kill, freshman Eva Miller blocking a shot, a JDHS mishit, a Brady kill and another mishit that forced JDHS to call time out with a 24-20 lead. After the break, Sitka’s Agullana served an ace to pull to 24-21, but the next serve was returned with force by Koski and Sitka mishit the return to fall 25-21.
Game three started with Powers serving an ace, but JDHS then giving up the ball on a violation. Another shot-for-shot exchange showed a 3-3 tie accented by Sitka’s Brady serving an ace.
Once again a string of serves by Gilbert, Veikoso, Troxel, Summers and Powers opened a 17-9 lead and JDHS would not be threatened down the stretch.
Sitka stayed in the mix with an ace by freshman Rosie Starbuck, a kill by Brady, and two kills and an ace from Clifton to pull to 19-13. A kill by JDHS’ Troxel gave service to Veikoso who pushed the lead out to 23-13.
A service error gave Sitka possession and sophomore Lily Scrantz put a serve over that was set up for a JDHS kill shot, but the Wolves’ Marx blocked to pull to 23-15. A pair of exchanges put the score at 24-16 and Sitka’s Marx served a point to pull to 24-17.
JDHS’ Troxel dug up the next hard serve and Veikoso controlled the pass to set a nice ball above the net for Koski to close out the evening.
“It felt great,” Troxel said. “I loved how energetic we were throughout the whole game and it is just a great group of girls to play with. I am super excited for the rest of the season. We definitely wanted to stay consistent through the whole game. That is a big thing, keeping the energy the same through the whole game. Not getting too hyped but not getting too low energy. I was just thinking to smile and lift my teammates up the whole time.”
Stats provided by JDHS show Gilbert had 19 points scored on her service through the match, Veikoso eight, senior Clairee Overson seven, Troxel, Powers and Summers three each, and senior Faith Contreras one. Gilbert had five aces, Overson four, Summers and Veikoso one apiece. Troxel had five official kills, Koski four, Gilbert and Veikoso three apiece, and senior Analia Perry two. Powers and Veikoso had eight assists apiece.
Sophomore Winter Osterhout led with eight digs, Powers and Perry six apiece, and Troxel five. Osterhout led with 18 pass attempts, Troxel 10, Koski five, Overson and Veikoso four apiece, Powers and Contreras two apiece. Troxel and Summers kept nine hits in play apiece, Koski and Veikoso seven apiece, Gilbert five, Osterhout two and Perry one. Troxel and Koski had 15 kill attempts apiece, Summers 13, Veikoso 11, Gilbert 10, Perry seven and Osterhout two.
The JDHS C-Team and Crimson team will scrimmage at 2:30 p.m. Saturday prior to the 4 p.m. JDHS/Sitka JV match and followed by the 5 p.m. JDHS/Sitka varsity match.
“It’s a long season,” JDHS head coach Arnold Ibias said. “We are excited about every game.”
The JDHS JV fell in a three-game series to the Sitka JV on Friday, 1-2 (25-15, 26-28, 4-15). Official stats were not available. Senior Cassie Chenoweth, juniors Maddie Tingey and Zoe Tagsip, sophomores Bela Pyare, Serena Huang, Noella Burgess and Tori Petrie, and freshmen Sinira Tomanogi and Kaneisi Talamai were among athletes noted for play in the match.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at sports@juneauindependent.com
