The Southeast Region V Volleyball Championships begin tomorrow at Thunder Mountain High School with a new look.<\/p>\n
Only the 4A teams will be playing in Juneau.<\/p>\n
Without 3A schools there will be no crossover All-Southeast game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is drastically different,\u201d Juneau-Douglas coach Lesslie Knight said. \u201cNo cheering and supporting our southeast friends. Through the years, we get to know the kids. I have housed kids and would love to watch them play. One of my fondest memories is having all the 3A\u2019s cheering for us at the volleyball regions during the \u2018if\u2019 game. In more than 25 years of coaching, that was a first to have everyone cheering for Juneau. That brings tears to my eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n
With just two teams in the 3A ranks this season, Mt. Edgecumbe and Sitka, the 3A tournament will be a best-of-three series between the two starting tonight at Mt. Edgecumbe. <\/p>\n
On Friday, the Wolves and Braves will play at Sitka and the \u201cif necessary\u201d game will be Saturday at Mt. Edgecumbe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason it was changed to separate locations is this is the first year with just Mt. Edgecumbe and Sitka after Petersburg opted down,\u201d Alaska School Activities Association Representative Andrew Friske said. \u201cIt was a cost thing. My guess is after this year it will go back to 3A\/4A together in Ketchikan next season. It is going to be weird for everybody not having the 3A\/4A together in the same tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n
Petersburg opted down to the 2A ranks this season and will play in the 2A small school region volleyball tournament at host Skagway on Nov. 20-21 along with Wrangell, Craig, Haines, Metlakatla, and Klawock. The Mix 6 Championships with Angoon, Gustavus, Hoonah, Hydaburg and Kake will be at host Thorne Bay on the same dates. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt also really waters down the officials,\u201d Friske said. \u201cWe are scrambling for officials, Juneau was scrambling for officials and so is Wrangell. They have a seeding tournament coming up. So does Petersburg this weekend. There are just not very many certified volleyball officials right now.<\/p>\n
The seeding tournament is needed for the smaller schools because they do not all get a chance to play each other during the season.<\/p>\n
That has not been a problem for the 4A ranks.<\/p>\n
When the Ketchikan Lady Kings (6-2) take on the Thunder Mountain Falcons (0-8) Friday at 4 p.m., with the winner playing the Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears (6-2) at 8 p.m., the teams will not have a familiarity problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to have our attitudes in the right place,\u201d TMHS coach Arnold Ibias said. \u201cI like the way we are playing, but we are just not able to finish games. We are working hard this week to find that element of our game that we are missing. We\u2019ve talked a lot this week about being a team and believing in one\u2019s self as well as your team. We have to play as a team in order to handle the offense of JD and Ketchikan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Kayhi and JDHS have swept TMHS this season. Ketchikan match scores have been close against the Juneau teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have been great to be 8-0 but we are not,\u201d Ibias said. \u201cAt the beginning of the season our motto was keep your eye on the prize. This season has been tough trying to find what makes us tick and I am hoping, with the focus at practice this week, we will get what we\u2019ve been working for since August. I\u2019ve got a great group of girls to work with and that is the highlight for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just need to trust our team,\u201d Ketchikan coach Naomi Michelson said. \u201cTeam comes first. We need to just work and have fun. Maintain focus and pass, pass, pass\u2026 and get our serves in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knight said she\u2019s wanting to see her team \u201cbe competitive and fired up.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI had a big talk with the girls on if they considered themselves competitive,\u201d she said. \u201cI am not seeing the same kind of competitiveness that I have expectations for. Yesterday was a pretty intense practice and I think I scared them. I think you have to pick it up and get better, not stay at the same level. They are capable of playing better but sometimes they just coast.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nREGION V 4A <\/strong><\/p>\n TOURNAMENT <\/strong><\/p>\n SCHEDULE:<\/strong><\/p>\n FRIDAY, Game 1 – 4 p.m., KTN vs. TMHS; GM 2 – 8 p.m. JDHS vs. Winner GM 1.<\/p>\n SATURDAY, GM 3 \u2013 Noon elimination, Loser GM 1 vs. Loser GM 2; GM 4 \u2013 4 p.m. championship, Winner GM 2 vs. Winner GM 3; GM 5 \u2013 8 p.m., if necessary if GM 4 loser\u2019s first loss. A skill\u2019s competition will be held at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Southeast Region V Volleyball Championships begin tomorrow at Thunder Mountain High School with a new look. Only the 4A teams will be playing in Juneau. Without 3A schools there will be no crossover All-Southeast game. \u201cThis is drastically different,\u201d Juneau-Douglas coach Lesslie Knight said. \u201cNo cheering and supporting our southeast friends. Through the years, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":17924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-17923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17923"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=17923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}