Crimson Bears volleyball team sweeps Kings at Kayhi

Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé volleyball senior team captain Evelyn Richards and junior captain Lavinia Ma’ake, formerly of the now-defunct Thunder Mountain High School, have made sure the consolidation with players from both schools has evolved into a smooth mixing on and off the court and a pair of match wins on the road in Ketchikan over the weekend.

“I think that we have all collectively helped mesh the two schools by working our hardest to get to know each other and be there for our team despite being rivals in the past,” Richards said. “We let go of that rivalry and our team is better for it because now we get the best of both schools. The upside of the team this year is that we can combine our skills that we’ve learned from playing on different teams and come together as one to put it to good use which helped us become conference champs.”

The Crimson Bears swept the Kings 25-15, 25-21, 25-18 on Friday and 25-19, 25-16, 25-15 on Saturday.

Richards totaled four kills, three blocks, two digs and one kill in four games at Kayhi. Ma’ake totaled nine points on serve, five aces, nine kills, four digs and two blocks in six games.

“We all have so many ideas and just continue to build on them,” Ma’ake said of the consolidation. “We’ve had many team meetings to discuss what’s working and what needs improvements. It’s the same school, but a new team, and we get to start new traditions. The upside of our team is the combining of our talents. Our personalities compliment each other so well on and off the court. And playing in Ketchikan this weekend, we were just having fun, showing off our skills and the hard work we’ve put in from the start of the season. We’re just getting started.”

JDHS head coach Jody Levernier said the Crimson Bears served well Friday.

“We only had five missed serves for all three sets so that was really good,” she said. “We had a handful of aces, that was nice.”

JDHS had a lot of attacks on the ball in the first set and got ahead early.

Sophomore Leila Cooper served the first 10 points of the game, including three aces, and added 15 assists and 12 digs.

“That was a great confidence booster for the kids,” she said. “They just continued to play pretty solidly the rest of the game.”

The Crimson Bears struggled slightly in the second and third sets, but their serves and net play kept them in the contests.

“Our middles are really starting to block up better so that is always exciting when a kid blocks the ball and puts it to the floor,” Levernier said. “I don’t think anyone surprised me. I think as a team each weekend they play a little bit better and a little bit better because we went through the consolidation and the kids are great. They all got along super well. I was actually super surprised by the beginning of the season. I thought, ‘This is going to be great.’”

“But it doesn’t necessarily translate to the court. So they struggled a little bit with just the dynamics on the court. It wasn’t anything mean or malicious they just were getting to know each other and trust each other and what kind of volleyball player each other are and how are we going to work together. It kind of surprised me the struggles they went through on that but the last couple of weekends they’ve just been starting to play more and more like a team. I don’t know if that is a surprise. It is expected they would improve in that area, but it is just really nice to see them starting to really play as a team and communicate on the court and have fun playing volleyball.”

Junior libero Cambry Lockhart had 24 digs on Friday and 16 Saturday. She also had 19 points scored on service including five aces.

“It was really fun,” Lockhart said. “I thought we played really good together and our program as a whole. It was really fun to hear everybody cheering, and I thought it was a really supportive weekend, and we ended up with the wins, too, which was really nice.”

This is Cambry’s second year in volleyball. Last season she played junior varsity for TMHS and said the transition to JDHS has been smooth.

“I think we are doing great,” she said. “It is really fun to be with the best people from both schools, and I think we are on track for a really good year. And I think it is really fun being with a bunch of different people.”

Sophomore setters Leila Cooper, also from TMHS, and Brie Powers have a lot riding on their young shoulders as they are the “two” in the JDHS 6-2 rotation.

The Crimson Bears run two setters, who set from the back row.

For instance, if Cooper is in she plays in the back row and when she rotates to the front then Powers comes in so the duo is always opposite of each other.

Over the weekend, the two combined for 32 assists (Cooper 15, Powers 17) and 15 digs (Cooper 12, Powers 3) on Friday and 26 assists (Cooper 16, Powers 10) and 14 digs (Powers 10, Cooper 4) Saturday.

“Good passing was definitely a key part of our games,” Cooper said. “And communication. It is a mental game being a setter. Not difficult you just have to have the confidence and mentality.”

Cooper also had 27 points scored on her service for the weekend including five aces.

Powers said the setting duties are a lot of fun.

“We go back and forth through, like, usually three rotations,” she said. “I think it’s a great team, and I really like how our lineup has been and it has been working for us. I think this weekend went really well. I think that we have definitely improved since the beginning of the season and have really come together as a team and I just think that it was a fun weekend.”

Starting junior outside hitter Braith Dihle, formerly of TMHS, had 23 points scored on serve with six aces and junior middle hitter Neela Thomas had 10 service points and one ace. Dihle added 14 kills, 29 digs and one block. Thomas had six digs, three kills and one block.

Five-foot-four sophomore libero and defensive specialist June Troxel was credited for her aggression as she had three blocks on Saturday. Troxel usually plays in four of the team’s rotations, hitting in the front row and also serving.

“That kid has some vertical hops there,” Levernier said.

JDHS has used a variety of players for their final starting spot and each brings some level of success.

“It just depends who is on that night and we go from there,” Levernier said. “Volleyball is a weird sport. When things go south they can go south really fast. They can be quick games so playing consistently and keeping the momentum going and playing to their potential and not down to an opponents can be a big mental game in volleyball.”

She noted that Saturday’s wins were a confidence booster for the Crimson Bears.

“Scores were a little bit better on our end for sure,” she said. “I think one of the things we have been working on is playing our game and not playing down to the level of the other team, and that was something we struggled with a lot at the beginning of the season. I think all weekend they really kept playing their game. When Ketchikan started creeping up on us they just kind of refocused, they hadn’t let up, and kept pushing as hard as they could. And we just talked about being aggressive all the time. I thought they did a really good job of it…Evelyn had three blocks and Lavinia really started coming alive in the third set. She hit a couple balls, probably the hardest balls I have seen her hit this season.”

Adding to the unofficial statistics were sophomore middle hitter Amelia Elfers with four kills and one block and junior Natalia Harris, formerly of TMHS, with two kills.

The sweep means JDHS (4-0 Southeast Conference, 8-17 overall) are the regular season conference champions in the two-team league as they defeated Kayhi (0-4 SEC, 6-14 OA) both matches in Juneau in September – 26-24, 25-8, 25-27, 25-19 and 25-12, 18-25, 25-14, 25-20.

The Region V Tournament will be Nov. 8-9. The teams will play double elimination. The first two matches will be best-of-five game sets. If needed, a third game will be played to 30 points to decide tourney champion and a trip to state.

JDHS will host Wasilla this weekend. Friday night will be senior night prior to 7 p.m. varsity game time. Saturday’s varsity game is at 4 p.m.

The JDHS junior varsity defeated Kayhi in a five-set match 21-25, 25-20, 25-20, 22-25, 15-10 and the JDHS C team swept Kayhi 25-16, 25-15, 25-18.

• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.