{"id":52855,"date":"2019-09-09T05:30:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-09T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/falcons-spikers-too-much-for-wolves\/"},"modified":"2019-09-09T05:30:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-09T13:30:00","slug":"falcons-spikers-too-much-for-wolves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/falcons-spikers-too-much-for-wolves\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcons spikers too much for Wolves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t

The reigning Region V volleyball champions<\/a> defended home court in their season opening matches Friday and Saturday at Thunder Mountain High School.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Thunder Mountain knocked off Sitka 3-0 (25-16, 25-16, 25-9) Friday and 3-1 (25-21, 25-17, 26-28, 25-16) Saturday, the start of a two month season.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Junior setter Sophia Harvey helped complete the weekend sweep over the nonconference Lady Wolves on Saturday with a team-high 16 kills and 31 assists. Harvey took over setting duties from Marissa Tanuvasa-Tuvafaile, one of seven seniors who graduated from the program last season.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“I’m really excited for this year,” Harvey said. “I think we’re going to have a killer team.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

The Falcons also sported new liberos this season in senior Bridget Gehring and junior Kaylani Tupou.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“I think Bridget has done a great job stepping up in the back row, and I feel like she’s been a really big leader,” Harvey added.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

The defensive play from both teams reached a high level in the third set Saturday. Sitka overcame two Thunder Mountain set points to win the third set by a score of 28-26. Sitka coach Zaide Allen credited energy and good coverage for the mini turnaround.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“Just really playing the court well, passing well,” Allen said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

The Falcons regained the momentum in the fourth set on the strength of high-velocity hits from Harvey, Marissa Tanuvasa-Tuvaifale and Lily Smith. Tanuvasa-Tuvaifale and Smith combined for 30 kills in the match. Gehring finished with a team-high 19 digs.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“We’re trying really different things this year — faster hits, different hits — and I think it’s coming along,” Harvey said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Thunder Mountain hosts its first conference games of the season on Friday and Saturday against Ketchikan. Varsity plays at 8 p.m. Friday and 7 p.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaat.at Kalé also won its season-opening matches. The Crimson Bears defeated Ketchikan 3-0 (25-8, 25-7, 25-14) Friday, and 3-0 (25-16, 25-15, 25-20) Saturday.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

\"Juneau-Douglas<\/a>

Juneau-Douglas junior Jojo Griggs dives for the ball while playing against Ketchikan High School at Clarke Cochrane Gymnasium in Ketchikan on Friday, Sept. 6, 2019. (Dustin Safranek | Ketchikan Daily News)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

\u2022 Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nainsworth@juneauempire.com.<\/b><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

<\/p>\n\t\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New faces, new roles on display. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":425,"featured_media":52856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-52855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52855","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\/425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52855"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=52855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}