Hawks just miss state meet

The Houston Hawks volleyball team has been somewhat of a Cinderella story this season. Although they didn't take the Alaska volleyball world by storm and win the state tourney, the Hawks consistently shocked opponents, as other teams were in awe of their tenacious defense and spunky attitude.

In the Region III-3A volleyball tournament, the spunky Hawks ran out of gas just short of the finish line as they dropped a 3-1 (25-22, 16-25, 25-17, 25-20) match to Nikiski.

The Bulldogs earned the final seed in this weekend's small school state volleyball tourney and the Hawks fell just short.

"They played really good, but fell a little short," Houston head coach Bill Sieben said. "The girls were all over the court, digging everything, so Nikiski started tipping it. They found a couple of holes.

"It was kind of a heartbreaker."

After losing in the semifinals to then-undefeated Grace Christian, Houston turned around and defeated Anchorage Christian School 3-0 (25-13, 25-10, 25-9) in the consolation side of the bracket to earn the chance to play Nikiski.

Houston led ACS 15-13 and went on a 10-0 run to close out the Lions in the first game. After that point, Houston dominated the match.

The Hawks received a great deal of recognition in the region awards.

Sieben was named the region coach of the year.

"I was caught off guard, pretty surprised," Sieben said. "I knew the team was coming along.

I told the team, this was a team award. With out the team to work with and listen, we are not going to get anywhere."

Houston's Cynthia Sieben was named first-team all-region, Courtney Elder, Brandy Argo and Breezy Wirbinski each earned second team honors and Kayla Fox was named to the sportsmanship team.

Seward won the Region III-3A tourney.