The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears volleyball team kicked off their Anchorage road trip on the wrong side of a three-set sweep.
JDHS fell to host East Anchorage 25-9, 25-8 and 25-22 on Thursday inside the Bettye Davis East Anchorage gymnasium.
In set one, East led 2-0 before JDHS junior Cambry Lockhart tipped a shot to get on the board.
East would regain possession and score on two kills by Evelyn Whitson and a tip by Italian senior exchange student Sofia Zaccanti for a 5-1 advantage.
JDHS senior Evelyn Richards killed a shot for service, but East again regained possession and Whitson served to a 13-2 advantage with an ace and kills by Zaccanti and sophomore Raisa Logoleo.
JDHS had a kill by junior Lavinia Ma’ake, but did not score on service, and East freshman Tina Laufiso served out to a 17-3 lead.
A JDHS kill by junior Natalia Harris again went unanswered on service, and Logoleo served East to 20-4.
A miss hit put JDHS junior Neela Thomas at service for an ace and an opponent’s miss hit to trail 20-6.
East’s Zaccanti served to a 23-7 lead with two aces until JDHS’ Richards killed for point eight.
After exchanging services, East killed for the win 25-9.
In set two, East again took an early lead of 14-2 with their own miss hits giving JDHS points. The Thunderbirds would lead 19-5. JDHS scoring came from kills by Richards, junior Braith Dihle and sophomore June Troxel.
East next led at 23-7 with a service error and a miss hit scoring for JDHS. Richards killed for the Crimson Bears final eighth point at 24-8 and East killed to end the set.
JDHS found their rhythm in the third set, opening a 5-2 advantage with Dihle serving and kills by Ma’ake and Richards.
The Crimson Bears led 9-4 with sophomore Brie Powers serving and a kill and block by sophomore Amelia Effers. Service by Ma’ake, including an ace, pushed the advantage to 9-4 and JDHS would exchange multiple service possessions for a 17-14 lead that included kills by Harris, Dihle and Ma’ake.
East put a run on behind senior Shaelynn Dovell at service and took a 20-17 lead.
JDHS regained service and the lead at 21-20, with Ma’ake serving and a block by Effers and kills by Dihle and Lockhart.
East went up 23-21 on JDHS miss hits and after Dihle killed for service to pull within 23-22, East’s Dovell killed for match point and Zaccanti for match.
“We didn’t come out ready to play and got off to a really slow start,” JDHS coach Jody Levernier said. “But the third set we started picking up the pace a little and playing more like a team. Hopefully we got that out of our system and they will be ready to play their game tomorrow…it was a long day. It is a long day when we get up at 5 a.m., fly and get here at 9:30 a.m. and play at 7 p.m.”
The Crimson Bears play in the Dimond/Service Tournament this weekend. Four pools of round-robin play on Friday includes Group A: JDHS, Colony, Dimond, Grace Christian, Kodiak; Group B: Chugiak, Nikiski, North Pole, South Anchorage, West Anchorage 2; Group C: Palmer, Service, Valdez, West Anchorage 1, West Valley; and Group D: Bartlett, East, Kenai, Lathrop and Soldotna. Teams will be seeded for bracket play in Saturday’s final matches.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.
