Submitted by VHS J.V. Volleyball Coach
October 10-11
Shoutout to Laken Unger who earned All-Tournament team.
This past weekend the Buccaneer Junior Varsity Volleyball team traveled to Anchorage to compete in our largest tournament of the season at Lumen Christi High School. Being invited to this tournament was a unique and challenging opportunity to play against 14 2A varsity teams from all over the state. Some of the competition traveled from as far away as places like Unalaska and Sand Point (found in the far west of the Aleutian chain) to Petersburg on the southeast panhandle of Alaska, not to mention interior Alaskan towns like Glennallen and Nenana, and other coastal communities like Cordova and Dillingham.
In route to Anchorage we stopped off at Colony High School for a Thursday evening match against the Knights C team. The Bucs came off the bus cold in the first set and Colony trounced us 12-25. The Bucs fought back, however, in the second set making it a much closer game. Our downfall was giving the Knights too many freeball returns which allowed them to set up their offense and put us on our heels. The Knights took the second set and the match victory 21-25.
Our first set on Friday morning was against the Cook Inlet Academy. With strong serving from Raegan Lawrence and Peyton Branshaw along with a fierce attack from Laken Unger at the middle, the Bucs beat the Eagles 25-16. Our second set of the day was against Lumen Christi’s JV team. In this set Cersei Strickland earned herself a tip-kill and Branshaw claimed a few kills of her own from outside and backrow. The final score found the Bucs at a 25-8 win. The King Cove were next on the Bucs list to play. In this set Laela Scott picked up some tremendous passing from the back row which allowed Lawrence the opportunity to share sets along the net. Branshaw, Under, Averey Franklin, and Amelia Alex were all able to dish out attacks against the T-Jacks. The Bucs claimed another victory 25-13. Our fourth set of the day against the Cordova Wolverines was by far our most exciting match up of the day. Both teams were putting up aggressive attacks and scrappy defense. Our serving was very consistent which helped us to stay in the game. The Wolverines had a strong hitting force that kept the Bucs on the move, but our Valdez ladies were undaunted and threw back their own fierce attacks from Branshaw, Under, Strickland, and Olivia Marchant. The Bucs suffered their first and only loss of the day, 21-25. Last but not least, the Bucs faced Ninilchik for their final set of the evening. The Bucs went out with a bang for the evening with multiple kills from the front row including an exciting block-kill from Unger. The Bucs ended the night with four wins and 1 loss.
The next day the Bucs were placed #1 in the silver bracket. Our first match was against
Lumen Christi’s varsity team. This was an exciting match, best two out of three. The Archangels had a dynamite middle hitter that came out with tremendous energy. Unger was on fire during this first set with multiple hard kills from the middle. The Bucs won the first set 21-14. Lumen Christi was not going down without a fight. The next set was a battle. Both Unger and Branshaw were hungry to attack and Lawrence was able to feed them the ball. Marchant added in a kill from the right side and a block-kill for the set win, the final score 22-20. This put the Bucs into the championship game for the silver bracket.
Our last match of the tournament was against Tri-Valley. In our first set the Bucs tried to give it away with service errors. Fortunately some scrappy defense by Scott and Branshaw along with kills by multiple Buc players kept the Bucs in the game. They earned the first set win narrowly, 21-19. In the next set the Bucs buckled down in serving. They achieved their first error-free set for serves! Unfortunately, service errors and communication drops gave Tri-Valley the edge and they took the second set 13-21. Tri-Valley went into the third set with momentum and never backed down. They claimed the championship win 6-11.
The girls did a terrific job this weekend. They played older and more experienced teams and held their own. It was great to see players start to shine in their roles. Well done, Bucs!