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Juneau-Douglas topples Ketchikan in Southeast championship
Crimson Bears sweep Lady Kings for third straight Region V volleyball title
By Klas Stolpe
Juneau Independent
This story will be updated with additional photos on Sunday.
Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé volleyball team toppled southeast rival Ketchikan 3-0 (25-16, 25-9, 25-21) on Friday to sweep the 2026 Alaska Airlines Region V Volleyball 4A Championship in two matches at Juneau’s George Houston Gymnasium. The Crimson Bears had defeated the Lady Kings 3-0 (25-22, 25-16, 25-14) on Thursday.
“This is a really great experience,” JDHS senior Brie Powers said. “This has been the best season we have had. This is the best team I have played with, and I am really excited for what comes at state.”
The two match wins give JDHS the automatic Southeast bid to the ASAA/First National Bank Alaska 3A/4A Volleyball State Championships, Thursday through Saturday at Anchorage’s Alaska Airlines Center.
“It means so much,” JDHS senior June Troxel said. “This is the third region tournament that we have won in a row and I am super grateful to play with these amazing girls. I am so excited to go to state with all of them. We expect a lot of competition at state. We have been to Anchorage tournaments before so we know what to expect. So we expect just to play our best.”
JDHS trailed early in set one but turned the tide with Powers, Troxel, senior Haley Gilbert, senior Liliane Veikoso and junior Nellie Stowers in a service rotation that slowly broke Ketchikan down.
JDHS went from trailing 8-3 to taking a series of tie scores mid-match and opening up leads of 18-15 with Troxel serving, and a final run to 25-16 with Gilbert on service.
“I am beyond excited right now,” JDHS senior Haley Gilbert said. “I have waited all my four years to be able to go up to state with this team. I love every one of these girls and I know that we are going to do really good up in state. There is going to be competition, but we are going to do our best. We just know that we can compete and that we can play our best.”
JDHS took an early lead in set two and opened up a 12-3 advantage behind Powers, Troxel and Gilbert on service and strong net play from junior Ruby Koski.
The Crimson Bears went up 19-4 with Veikoso on service. At one point the power hitter had five straight aces. She had four kills in the set, Gilbert and Stowers two apiece, and senior Analia Perry and Troxel one. Powers opened the set with an ace and closed it with another for the 25-9 win.
“This means so much, especially for me and my team,” JDHS senior Liliane Veikoso said. “We worked so hard to get here. All the conditioning, all the running down and backs were worth it for this win. And I think the key tonight was our communication and our chemistry, and I don't think any skill could beat that.”
JDHS took control of the third set early with strong net play from Perry, Koski, Veikoso and Gilbert, among others. Perry would record a game-high six blocks.
“My mindset coming into the games is I try to think about something that I can do for the team,” JDHS’ Perry said. “Whether it is blocking, hitting, tipping. I have to think what I want to do. And if something is not working, I want to try something else. Tonight, what made me really happy was playing with my team and actually getting my blocks down at the start of practice this week. All I said I wanted to do was get my blocks down, and that is what I ended up doing at the time.”
Perry also had two joint contests at the net with juniors Koski and Stowers.
“I am super proud,” Perry said. “I think that is the most blocks I have gotten in a while. The Juneau volleyball team is all about being connected, having fun, and we really want to win. Even if we don't, we try to keep that energy up, and it is really just about being a family.”
Each time Ketchikan rallied within five or six points, the Crimson Bears buckled down. Troxel served to 17-12 including an ace, two kills from Veikoso and one from Stowers.
Perry blocked for possession and Gilbert served to 20-13, including kills from Powers and Veikoso.
Petty tipped a score for 21-14. Koski tipped a score for 22-16. Veikoso tipped a score for 23-19. Powers served for a 24-21 lead and Gilbert blocked a ball back across the net, forcing a Kayhi mishit for the match.
“Honestly, I am holding back the tears,” JDHS head coach Arnold Ibias said. You know, I've been coaching for a long time, and this has escaped me every year, and I am not kidding, I'm really holding back the tears. I am extremely happy with the girls. It is something we talked about back in the summer club season, you know, that we want to go to state. Our goal is to get to state, but also more importantly, is to make some noise when we get there. Not just be at state. So we are not done. We are going to come back on Monday and just pretend like it is regular season and we are going to work hard.”
Unofficial stats have Veikoso with 14 kills, five aces, two scoring plays and a block; Gilbert five kills, three blocks and two aces; Perry six blocks, three kills and a scoring tip; Troxel six kills and three aces; Powers two aces, two kills, and 11 digs; Koski with two kills, three blocks and two tips; and Stowers with three kills and a block.
Kayhi senior Winter Loretan was emotional after the match when describing the tournament.
“I think for me, personally, this tournament was really about, you know, like stepping on and showing out,” Loretan said. “This was my last year. I have been the varsity Libero for three years, and I think this was the night where I really wanted to change something about our culture. You know, we have a losing culture and I really just want to step out, show up, because we were able to in our home games. This was like a hard loss to take, but it meant a lot to me. And it meant a lot for my younger teammates to realize like how important this becomes when you get so much older because you have been working so hard to this point. And to put in all this time and, you know, like sweat, tears, blood, it's hard. It is hard to end it like this. But congrats to Juneau. They are a good team, they work hard and I hope they do great at state.”
Loretan had 11 digs for Kayhi. Ketchikan senior Mariah Colbert had six kills and two scoring tips; sophomore Jazlynn Ramsey and freshman Georgia Colbert five kills apiece.
“This tournament means a lot actually, all of it,” M. Colbert said. “I was just so excited coming into this. I am glad that I got to spend this season learning with these girls, because our team is very, very, very young and so I am just excited. I am not happy we lost, but I am still so excited to see these girls grow and just get better going into the future and see what these girls are going to do going forward.”
Senior Alexis Kolean led Kayhi with four blocks; sophomore Sophia Shulz had a kill and a block; junior Nikomi Tucker played well at the net. Kayhi’s service rotation of sophomore Addy Secrest, Loretan, sophomore Kendall Elliot, M. Colbert, sophomore Sophia Shula, freshman Juliana Ashcraft and G. Colbert responded to adversity well.
“This tournament means a lot,” Kolean said. “It is a really big deal to play against these girls for the last time. I have known them for four years. I have seen them play, I've played them, they are some of my really close friends. So it is really sad to say goodbye and I probably won't see them again because I don't plan on coming to Juneau any time soon. And it is kind of sad, playing with this team for the last time, and these girls, I played next to them for four years, so it's just a really bittersweet moment.”
Ketchikan head coach Bayle Heaton said, “We really enjoyed coming to Juneau and playing. I felt like Juneau was a great opponent all year long and we just really enjoyed ourselves, and we wish them the best of luck at state. We have got three seniors that we are going to send off and we are happy that we could work hard and play the best volleyball we could play for them. We have got a really young crew so it is great just to get these sophomores and freshmen on the court and see what a region tournament is all about. And we will be back in the gym ready to go another round next year.”
REGION V TOURNAMENT AWARDS
Team Sportsmanship: Mt. Edgecumbe Lady Braves.
4A All Conference: JDHS - senior Haley Gilbert, sr Liliane Veikoso, sr June Troxel, sr Brie Powers; Ketchikan - sr Winter Loretan, sr Mariah Colbert.
3A All Conference: Mt. Edgecumbe - sr Charity Mila, sr Gracelynn Friske, sr Zereah Henry; Sitka - sophomore Addie Marx, sr Bristol Clifton, junior Kailee Brady.
Good Sport Team: JDHS - sr Faith Contreras, so Winter Osterhout; Ketchikan - sr Alexis Kolean, so Kendall Elliott; Mt. Edgecumbe - sr Gracelynn Friske, sr Charity Mila; Sitka - fr Piper Vaughn, so Lily Scrantz.
All Academic Team (seniors): Sitka - Joey Agullana, Bristol Clifton; Ketchikan - Mariah Colbert; Mt. Edgecumbe - Charity Mila, Gracelynn Friske, Marlee Chris; JDHS - Faith Contreras, Leila Cooper, Haley Gilbert, June Troxel, Analia Perry, Brie Powers.
JDHS’ season roster included June Troxel (sr), Winter Osterhout (so), Brie Powers (so), Serena Huang (so), Leila Cooper (sr), Nellie Stowers (jr), Haley Gilbert (sr), Clairee Overson (sr), Ruby Koski (jr), Analia Perry (sr), Faith Contreras (sr), Kaneisi Talamai (fr), Bela Pyare (so), and Liliane Veikoso (sr). Coaches are Arnold Ibias and Kylie Ibias.
Ketchikan’s roster included Winter Loretan (sr), Jazlynn Ramsey (so), Kendall Elliot (so), Lilly Shull (so), Nikomi Tucker (jr), Mariah Colbert (sr), Addy Secrest (so), Juliana Ashcraft (fr), Alexis Kolean (sr), Georgia Colbert (fr), Stephanie Wills (so) and Sophia Shulz (so). Coaches are Bayley Heaton and Sherrine Baustista.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at sports@juneauindependent.com
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