After a notable absence in 2015, Juneau-Douglas High School’s setters, hitters and liberos will once again represent the Region V conference at the 2016 4A volleyball state tournament at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage.
Action starts this morning with the championship match slated for 2:30 p.m. Saturday. The Crimson Bears face Wasilla in the opening round at 9:45 a.m. today.
“I expect to see some pretty hard competition, but I think we can definitely handle it,” junior outside hitter and setter Abby Meiners said before boarding a plane to Anchorage on Tuesday. “… Our main goal is fun focus. When we’re having fun, we’re playing our best, but we also need to channel it into our focus.”
So far, the Crimson Bears have tested themselves against Southcentral’s heavy hitters in two regular season trips. Between a late September trip to Colony and an October trip to Service, JDHS has faced five of their seven tournament opponents, registering a combined three wins and five losses against Colony, Wasilla, West Valley, Bartlett and South.
Meiners said the Crimson Bears have shown well in every one of those games. She expects defending champs Dimond and South Anchorage to be particularly strong and Wasilla to pose a formidable obstacle in the first round of the double elimination tournament.
JDHS beat Wasilla 2-1 in their only match against the Warriors this season.
“I remember it being a pretty good match,” Meiners said. “We were playing really well, so hopefully we’re able to do that again.”
If they make it past Wasilla, JDHS will face the winner of a Colony vs. South matchup in the quarterfinals at 3:15 p.m. today.
JDHS has taken three loses to Colony on the season.
“In the beginning, they just crushed us,” junior middle hitter Cassie Dzinich said of the Colony matches. “We kept playing them and getting better and better. Then the last time we played them, we went 25-27, and they have some huge hitters, all of the teams up there do. When we played Colony, it was pretty cool, our defense was on another level. Our defense, I feel like, is better against better teams.”
The girls feel they are playing their best game at the right time. They’ve found their stride in a fast offense, according to coach Leslie Kalbrener, in which the connection between the Crimson Bears’ middle hitters and setters has never been stronger.
This was apparent to Dzinich during the Region tournament at Mount Edgecumbe High School.
“Last weekend at Regions, we played so well. We said after that we felt unstoppable, it was pretty cool,” Dzinich said. “We feel more connected than ever.”
If JDHS suffers an early loss in the tournament, per double elimination rules, they have a chance to play their way back to the championship through a losers bracket. The team emerging from the losers bracket will have to beat the winners bracket champion twice to earn the state 4A title, with the second championship match, if necessary, taking place Saturday at 4:15 p.m.
• Contact Sports and Outdoors reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 or kevin.gullufsen@juneauempire.com.
