Hoonah Braves aim for fourth straight Class 2A region title
Klawock has top seed at the tourney, which kicks off today
The Hoonah Braves will be seeking their fourth straight Region V-Class 2A volleyball title as the region tourney begins today in Skagway.
The Braves, who have finished second at the Class 1A-2A-3A (West) state tournament the past three years, enter the tournament as the second seed with a 4-4 regular-season record and will face the third-seeded Kake Thunderbirds this morning to open region tourney play.
The Klawock Chieftains, sporting a 7-1 record, are the region tourney's top-seeded team this year. They will face the winner of this morning's play-in match between the fourth-seeded Thorne Bay Wolverines (3-5) and the fifth-seeded Skagway Panthers (1-7).
The top two teams qualify for the Class 1A-2A-3A (West) state tournament, to be held Dec. 4-6 at Anchorage's Dimond High School. This year's region tourney is being held earlier than usual due to ferry schedules and Thanksgiving.
Hoonah's regular-season record is deceptive, since the Braves forfeited several games when they missed a tourney at Thorne Bay last month. Skagway also missed the Thorne Bay tournament.
On Nov. 1, the Braves won the championship of the All-Comers Tournament in Ketchikan by beating a Juneau-Douglas High School mixed varsity/JV squad.
Several weeks earlier, Hoonah went undefeated in the early rounds of the Small Schools Tournament at Sitka before falling to a squad of Juneau's younger varsity players in the championship match.
Hoonah, in addition to its state runner-up finishes, won a state volleyball title in 1998.
Klawock was last year's region runner-up and also qualified for last year's state tournament, where the Chieftains lost in the first round.
The region tournament is a double-elimination event. Semifinals will be held tonight, with championship and if-necessary matches on Tuesday morning.