Prep volleyball: Juneau sweeps Wasilla

Oct. 13, 2006

By DARRELL L. BREESE/ Frontiersman

WASILLA - The Wasilla Warriors and Juneau-Douglas volleyball teams traded points in an exciting third game of their match Thursday at Wasilla High school. The game was highlighted by several long rallies, monster spikes and some big blocks.

It proved to be too little to late for the Warriors, as they were swept by the Crimson Bears 25-17, 25-11, and 25-20 in a non-conference match.

&#8220The girls were asleep out there,” Wasilla coach Marge Johnson said. &#8220They didn't wake up until the third game and by then it was too late.”

Juneau took advantage of the sluggish Warriors to jump out to big leads early in the first and second game, before easily coasting to wins.

&#8220Their setter killed us in the first game,” Johnson said of the 5 tip kills recorded by Juneau's Rachelle Albay. &#8220Whenever she was setting close to the net, she just pushed the ball over our blockers and the rest of the team just stood there flat-footed and watched. That just killed us.”

Albay continued to frustrate the Warriors with her tip kills, finishing the match with 10.

&#8220That's not something we normally try,” Juneau coach Sandi Wagner said of the tip balls. &#8220She just saw it was open in the first game and went for it. It kept working so she kept doing it.”

The Warriors showed some signs of life in the second game, but instead of brilliant offensive play, they committed 11 errors and served the ball into the net four times.

&#8220I stopped counting how many balls we miss hit in that game,” Johnson said. &#8220Everything was going against us at that point.”

That is what made the third game so impressive to Johnson.

&#8220The girl's didn't give up,” she said. &#8220They kept fighting.”

Sophomore middle blocker Jenna Johnson, who had missed most of her blocks in the first two game stopped back-to-back kill attempts from Juneau's Amber Walker. She followed up the second block by hitting the ball through the arms of Crimson Bear defender Rachelle Miller for the first of four kills in the game.

Junior outside hitter Ashlen Welch solved figured out the Juneau blocking scheme and drove the ball down the line and cross court for two easy kills. Megan Walker came off the bench to serve two straight aces and tie the final game at 18-18.

&#8220I think the girls finally realized that they could compete with Juneau,” Johnson said of the third game awakening.

But the rally was short lived. Walker's next serve went into the net allowing Juneau to get the win on a spike from Walker, her game-high 12th of the match.

Despite the win Wagner was not happy with how her team played in the final game.

&#8220We let them get back into the game,” Wagner said. &#8220They're a good team and I'm not satisfied with how we closed out the match. We need to do better than that.”

Johnson finished with 8 kills to lead the Warriors

Both teams are playing in the Dimond-Service Invitational tournament today and Saturday in Anchorage. And they open with a match against each other in first round pool play.

&#8220Hopefully we'll be awake tomorrow when we play them,” Johnson said. &#8220I know if we communicate on the court and play focused we can compete with them. Otherwise it could be a repeat performance.”

Contact Darrell L. Breese at 352-2267 or at darrell.breese@

frontiersman.com.