2011 volleyball season ends at Region V

The Lady Wolves volleyball team ended their 2011 season on an up note with a win at the Region V tournament in Juneau last weekend.

Though they would come back later to log a victory, the team began their jaunt with a tough loss 25-22, 25-18, 25-13 to Craig in the first round of the double-elimination format competition.

During the game against Craig, junior Tori Gulla went out with a pulled outer ligament in her knee.

“She was in a lot of pain,” said head coach Jessica Whitaker. “She has had previous surgeries on the knee, but I think she’ll be fine and ready for next season.”

One high point of the Craig match was McKenna Harding’s 8 kills and 3 blocks.

“McKenna killed it in that game,” Whitaker added.

With the loss behind them, Metlakatla was up next for the young women from Wrangell and after all was said and done, the Wolves came out on top in five sets with a final score of 25-5, 22-25, 25-9, 25-27, 15-10.

Whitaker said the team took the win in stride and showed teamwork to get there.

“Even with the diversity and challenges we faced in our rotations, the girls were able to work together to pull off the win,” Whitaker said.

Shayna Schultz, the tournament winner for Best Passer in Southeast Alaska, exceeded expectations with 15 serves in a row during the Metlakatla game. Junior Alyssa Allen left the game early after a collision with fellow Lady Wolves player Erica Smith resulted in a sprained ankle.

Allen also came in 2nd place for Best Serving in Southeast after a sudden death matchup against Kayhi knocked her out of the top spot.

The Lady Wolves final game of the 2011 season came, unfortunately, on a close 25-20, 28-26, 25-11 loss to Haines and the Lady Glacier Bears.

Whitaker said even though the season is over, she saw improvement in all of her players.

“The girls really improved over the season and were able to up their serving percentages,” Whitaker said. “They were also able to work better on following the movement of the ball instead of waiting for it to come to them. We’re only losing Loni Buness as a senior, so we expect great things out of them next year.”