Colony outlasts Juneau volleyballers in five games
A sluggish start proved to be more than the Juneau-Douglas High School volleyball team could overcome as the Crimson Bears dropped a five-game match to the Colony Knights on Thursday in Palmer.
Juneau dropped the first two games of the match, rallied to win the next two, but sputtered in the final game to lose 16-14, 15-6, 15-17, 8-15, 15-12.
"Basically, we didn't show up for the first two games," Juneau co-coach Dale Bontrager said. "It was a real struggle to get going. We never really had our A game even when we did get going, but we came back on 'em. We struggled in the fifth game and let them get a lead. We tried to rally, but we couldn't quite put it together."
Juneau trailed in the first game by 6-0 and 12-4 scores before closing the gap at the end. In the third game, Juneau trailed 8-4 but rallied to take a 12-10 lead. Colony took a 15-14 lead and was poised to make the match a three-game sweep, but Juneau went on a run to keep the match going.
In the fifth game, Juneau led 6-4 but Colony went on a six-point run to take a 10-6 lead. The Knights led 13-8 and Juneau was able to close the gap to 14-12 before Colony ended the match.
The Crimson Bears had been scheduled to play Cordova on Wednesday, but mechanical problems with their airplane stranded them in Yakutat before the players returned to Juneau. On Thursday afternoon, the Juneau players boarded another flight to Anchorage that arrived just in time for the team to check into its hotel and change clothes before driving to Colony in Palmer. Heavy snowfall in Southcentral Alaska made the drive slower than normal.
"It was a long drive back. It was pretty nasty last night," Bontrager said. "But we don't want to be making excuses."
Amy Neussl led the Crimson Bears (8-3 overall) with a perfect 21-for-21 serving performance and three aces, 18 kills and seven solo blocks.
Kelly Baxter and Anna Capacci both had 14 kills, with Baxter adding 21 digs on defense. Sarah Bixby was a perfect 23-for-23 passing, Brenna Asper-Smith had five solo blocks and six block assists, while Callan Janowiec added seven block assists.
"We had both extremes in our blocking," Juneau co-coach Pat Gorman said. "I've never seen so many blocks, but I've never seen so many errors. We had 20 block assists and 13 solo blocks as a team, but we also had 29 team errors."
The Crimson Bears will play in the 19-team Service-Dimond Tournament today and Saturday, a tournament in Anchorage that features most of the state's top schools.
In pool play today, Juneau will face Grace Christian School, Skyview and Chugiak. From there, Juneau will move into another pool for its final placing.