The Thunder Mountain High School volleyball team served up its second win of the weekend Saturday night at TMHS.
After winning in five sets on Friday night against Juneau-Douglas, the Falcons finished off the Crimson Bears in four Saturday — 27-25, 23-25, 25-23, 25-17 — putting the senior night energy to good use.
“I felt like (our team) played pretty well tonight until that last game, that was tough, that was a struggle,” JDHS coach Dale Bontrager said.
It was the first match this season between the Juneau rivals that didn’t go all the way to a fifth set.
JDHS’ Abby Meiners and Cassie Dzinich had outstanding offensive and defensive performances, but so did TMHS’ seniors.
Meiners tallied 19 kills and 17 digs. Dzinich finished the match with 12 kills and 20 digs.
The two teams now head to Ketchikan for the Region V Volleyball Championships starting Friday. TMHS is the No. 1 seed in the double-elimination tournament with JDHS and Ketchikan.
The Ketchikan Kings are winless against both the Juneau schools this season.
Bontrager is prepared to duke it out with the Falcons for the region championship. The TMHS volleyball program has never won Region V trophy and has never made the state tournament.
JDHS now has six days to regain its confidence after two crushing losses this weekend.
“For us, it’s really is about whether we’re feeling good when we’re serving, feeling strong when we’re hitting, knowing that the ball’s going in bounds, that kind of stuff is key for us,” Bontrager said.
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com.
