VHS Weekend Wrap-Up – November 12, 2018

STATE VOLLEYBALL 2018 

Submitted by Coach Sharrai

VHS Volleyball Team Takes 2nd Place at State Tournament

The Lady Bucs headed to Anchorage for State Volleyball competition Wednesday morning excited to get their practice time of 3:45 pm and start shedding some State competition anxiety!  State was back in the Alaska Airline Center demanding excitement from all the competitors as they make their way to the floor gazing up at the enormous space they have the honor of competing in for three days.

Valdez Lady Bucs went right to work at 1:30 Thursday putting the Homer Mariners behind them in 4 sets: 25-9; 14-25; 25-23; and 28-26. The match had 89 serves for 12 aces and 5 errors.  Sydney Johnson led off the match serving 20 with 5 aces, Wesenberg 19 with 4 aces, Carlee Fleming 16, Jillian Fleming 15 with 2 aces, Kassi Howard 10, and Jade Watts with 9 serves.  Johnson also led kills going 18 for 16 followed by Sieber at 12 for 8 with Howard adding 8 for 6, Watts 8 for 4, and Maison Anderson 3 for 3. Carlee Fleming, had 32 assists with Jade Holmes also adding 3 to finish off Homer and move up the bracket.

Nikiski was next that night at 7 pm as they beat Barrow in their first game and the Lady Bucs took it right to them in set one 25-22.  Nikiski, however, strengthened their efforts and took the Bucs in the next 3 sets 17-25, 22-25, and 13-25. This proved to be a much different game to the Lady Bucs as Nikiski’s passing game held them to just 2 aces for 74 serves while the kills for the match amounted to 62%.  The Lady Bucs were set back a little but as usually is the case you learn more from losing than winning. It was pretty clear that if they were going to come back through the double elimination bracket (losers bracket) things would have to change—especially DEFENSE!

Edgecumbe was next on Friday also at 1:30 pm as they lost to Grace in game 1.  The Lady Bucs started off with a scare dropping set one 17-25.  They decided, however, this was not going to be the end and came back fighting hard to take the next 3 sets 25-22, 25-19, and 25-21 never giving up their attack and showing a much better defense at the net.  Serving was led by Wesenberg with 26 for 4 aces, C. Fleming and Watts both had 2 aces, with Howard and Johnson adding 1 each as well. 89 total serves for 10 aces and 35 kills from 51 attempts to help seal the deal for the Bucs.  Johnson led kills with 12, Howard 8, Sieber 7, Watts 4, C. Fleming 2, Macy Hansen and Anderson adding 1 each.

Sydney Johnson at State Tournament

After getting past Edgecumbe Homer had managed to work their way back up the bracket to face us again later that night at 7 pm but the Lady Bucs were going to have no part of the play they presented with the Mariners in game one.  The Lady Bucs took care of business in 3 sets 25-15, 25-22, and 25-17 to keep moving up the seemingly endless bracket of doom they had set up for themselves! The Bucs served 73 for 6 aces with Johnson leading both serving and kills with 16 for 3 aces and 17 for 13 kills.  C. Fleming also had 2 aces along with Watts adding 1. Sieber added 18 for 9 kills with Howard, C.Fleming, and Hansen all going 100 % 7 for 7, 3 for 3, and 2 for 2 respectively.

Grace Christian was between the Lady Bucs and the Championship so the 10 AM semi-final game continued to show how the Bucs had changed their game. The Lady Bucs took Grace in 3 straight sets opening set one with a  25-10 eye opener led by Wesenberg who went 10 serves with 4 aces while Johnson floored 6 kills, Howard with 2, Watts and Seiber one each. Set 2 Johnson served up 6 for 3 aces while Carlee Fleming also added 6 with one ace.  Kills led be Johnson at 6 for 5, Howard 5 for 3, Seiber 4 for 2, and Watts 3 for 2. Set 3 followed suit with Wesenberg again going 9 with 2 aces, Johnson and Watts each adding 3 with 1 ace. Johnson went 8 for 7, Howard 4 for 3, Watts 2 for 2, and Seiber 2 for 1 to finalize a re-match with Nikiski for the State Championship ending Grace’s run 25-14.

The Lady Bucs were pumped as all their hard work had paid off and they earned their shot at the title the hard way making their way back up through tough competition to face Nikiski.   The Championship match started off with a surprised Nikiski Bulldogs losing set 1 25 – 17 as the Bucs defense was much improved from their earlier games with them. Jillian Fleming served up 7 followed by Wesenberg with 6 and an ace, Howard adding 3 and one ace as well.  Johnson went7 for 4 kills while Sieber threw in a 100 % 4 for 4 floored. Howard, C. Fleming, and Hansen all had one kill as well. Set 2 the Bucs fought it out but came up short 21-25 serving 2 aces and 8 kills. Set 3 serving remained about the same with 2 aces but the kills jumped back up with Sieber leading the way 9 for 6, Howard 5 for 4 Johnson 4 for 3, and Watts 2 for 1.  The Lady Bucs dragged away set 3 25-22 to put the worry back on the other side of the net. Up two sets to one, the Lady Bucs feel the surge mounting and rip into set 4 with 5 aces and 14 kills. Wesenberg led off going 7 with 1 ace followed by C. Fleming 6 with 1 ace, Johnson 4 with 1 ace, and Watts 4 for 2 aces. Johnson floored 5 out 8 with Howard going 5 for 4 kills, J. Fleming 4 for 3 and C. Fleming 2 for 2 to end set 4:   25-22, and win the match! A few in the crowd thought they had done it but what they soon realized is in a double elimination game there is another single game to 30 that has to be played to decide who is the Champion since Nikiski had not lost yet.

Valdez Volleyball Fans at the State Tournament

The Lady Bucs take all of the 5 minutes allowed to rest after a very long struggle to come back up through the bracket besting the Nikiski Bulldogs  3 sets to 1 to take the top seed going into the “If” game. 30 points after 3 sets with a very active Grace Christian and 4 sets from a rested Nikiski game left the Lady Bucs possibly a little tuckered but no excuses were allowed and they rallied themselves back up to start the 30 points, winner take all, game!  The Lady Bucs held even — back and forth going point for point until at 4 -4 trouble started. The Bulldogs started to pull away and at 5-9 forced a time-out for the Bucs to re-group and energize. Nikiski came out swinging hard and the Lady Bucs mounted an attack but the Bulldogs continued to lengthen their lead.  The Bucs were serving well but the Bulldogs had cleaned up their passing and the Bucs found no aces helping them out. At 9-17 the last time-out had to be used to infuse one more rally from the Bucs!. They had promised themselves and Coach Sharrai that they would never give up and win or lose –go out fighting. The Lady Bucs answered that call to lay it on the line and went at it as follows:

Bucs 9-10-11 to-17; Bulldogs 17-18-19-20 holding the Bucs at 11;  Bucs scrap it out 11-12-13-14 to 20; Bulldogs 20-21 to Bucs 14; Bucs 14-15-16-17 to 21 forcing Nikiski to take a time-out and pause the Bucs rally;  Bulldogs 21-22-23 to Bucs 17; Bucs 17-18 to 23 then 24; Bucs 18-19 to 24 then 25; Bucs 19-20-21 to 25 shortening the gap to 4; Bulldogs up one to 26-Bucs answer 22  but this would be the Lady Bucs final point of the match even though they fought each of those points out until the end, the Nikiski Bulldogs won the next four points to take the game 22-30.

The Lady Bucs came together as a team to fight back through a lot!  Serves – 513 of them with 53 aces, 227 assists to set up a lot of kill attempts – 384 of them with 240 kills,  but more importantly –creating and leaving smiles on their faces of a fantastic season, and memories of a great State Championship Tournament and how hard they fought throughout it!  Great Job Lady Bucs! Tournament awards followed and individual honors went to Jade Watts earning the Serving Award with Kassi Howard and Sydney Johnson making the All-Tournament Team.   Coach Sharrai thanks you all for your kindness and integrity throughout the season—you did incredibly well!

Super Job Lady Bucs!!

Go Bucs!!!

Valdez High School Rifle Team vs. Delta Jct. High School 

Results submitted by Coach Victoria Hedman

Valdez High School Wrestling Team @ Anchorage Christian Tournament & HERM Jones J.V. Tournament