Submitted by VHS Wrestling Coach
Sep. 26-27
Shout Outs:
Team Earned Silver Bracket Runner Up
All Tournament Team Player: Peyton Branshaw
This past weekend the Junior Varsity Buccaneer Volleyball team competed with 13 other schools in the Wasilla JV Volleyball Showdown. Schools competing at this tournament were: Palmer, Wasilla, Colony, Homer, Mountain City Christian Academy, Houston, Bartlett, Nikiski, Soldotna, Kenai, Kodiak, Grace, and Hutchison. With such a large number of teams, we were split into three initial pools to sort out the competition. In the pool play portion of the showdown, the Bucs played each team in their pool (Colony, Houston, and Soldotna) two sets to 25 on Friday night with one additional pool play game the following morning against a team from a different pool. Based on the results of these games teams were sorted into a top 8 bracket and lower 6 bracket.
The Bucs faced the Soldotna Stars for their first two sets of the night. The Stars took an early lead against the Bucs as our team struggled with serve receive to set up a good attack. The Bucs were able to claim a handful of tip-kills by Strickland, Franklin, and Unger, however they lost the first set 15-25. In the second set against Soldotna, the Bucs came out a little more aggressive. Lawrence was able to set up attacks from all three positions across the net, but Branshaw really came alive earning four kills from outside and an additional backrow attack and kill. Strickland, Franklin, and Marchant each claimed kills from their respective positions. The Bucs suffered a narrow defeat, 20 -25.
The second match up of the night was against the Houston Hawks. The Bucs maintained control of this game right from the start. Lawrence dished up a string of aggressive serves that put the Hawks on their heels. Laela Scott, the backbone of the back row, along with Ava Mitchell dialed in their passing to allow Lawrence to set up our offense which led to Amelia Alex claiming her first kill of the evening from the right side. The Bucs beat the Hawks in both
sets, 25-16 and 25-21.
The final two sets of the night were against the Colony Knights. In both sets against Colony Unger earned a block- kill to the frustration of the Knights’ middle hitter. Scott played a terrific second set both with her long serving streak and strong passing. The Bucs split with the Knights 21-25 in the first set and 25-18 in the second. At the end of Friday evening the Bucs had a 3-3 record for wins and losses which ranked them #3 in their pool behind Soldotna and Colony.
The final pool play game matched us up against the Hutchison Hawks who the Bucs had played the previous weekend. The Bucs beat the Hawks handily (25-13) in their first set with tremendous serving from Lawrence, Branshaw, and Unger. However in the second set, the Bucs made a series of communication errors that resulted in multiple dropped balls and free ball returns. The Hawks ended up taking the second set 21-25.
Based on these pool play games the Bucs were placed in the bottom bracket. Our first match up was against the Bartlett Golden Bears. The Bears, coming off of an early victory against the Hawks, put up a fierce defense but the Bucs responded with a series of scrappy plays and saves along with multiple front row and back row attacks. Olivia Kilian in particular peppered off some backrow fire from our right side along with another couple of kills from Alex in the front row. The Bucs beat Bartlett in 2 sets, both scores 25-17.
Our final match up of the tournament was against the Homer Mariners for the championship title of the silver bracket. While Homer was putting up attack after attack, the Bucs were in a scramble to send over free balls. Homer really was able to maintain the tempo of the game though the Bucs were able to hang within a few points. Strickland dished out a number of attacks from the middle, but Homer’s defence was able to keep the ball alive. Homer won the match in two sets, 17-25 and 18-25.
Way to go Bucs!
