The Lady Wolves rally during the first set of their final game against Craig on Saturday night. From left, clockwise: Caroline Ward, Taylor Bean, coach Jessica Whitaker, Kacie Galla, Alyssa Allen, Andrea Gillen, Shayna Schultz, Tori Gulla, Sasha Ashton, Darien Meissner, McKenna Harding, and Calleigh Miller. Not pictured: Erica Smith.
A trio of Lady Wolves at the ready against Craig. From left: Darien Meissner, Alyssa Allen and Tori Gulla.
Senior Tori Gulla goes up for the return against Haines on Friday afternoon.
Erica Smith catches major air during a set against Haines on Saturday morning.
Wrangell High School hosted the 2A Region V volleyball tournament Nov. 29-Dec. 1, with Wrangell nearly making it to the finals before losing in straight sets to Craig (25-19, 25-6, 25-17.)
The Lady Wolves began the tournament with a win against Hoonah, but fell later in the day on Thursday with a tough loss to Craig. The squad was able to bounce back by winning three straight matchups in the B-bracket against Metlakatla and Haines, however, to get them into the semifinals against the Lady Panthers.
Sophomore Darian Meissner said that even though she felt the team played well overall, a failure to communicate between the players was partly to blame for the Lady Wolves’ losses to Craig.
“I think the tournament turned out well and we had some great teams here,” Meissner said. “I think our team could have played a little bit better. We tried our hardest, but a lack of communication didn’t help. In the first two games, on Thursday, we played well together and talked to each other. After that, we became teenage girls and began to bicker at each other.”
Meissner was upbeat, however, about the support of her family and coach throughout the season.
“Coach is great,” she added. “She is very good and tells you when you are doing something wrong, but at the same time thanks you for doing something good. My family has been very important throughout the year too. If my parents didn’t support me, I don’t know if I could do this.”
Head coach Jessica Whitaker added that the team played very well when it came to scoring off the service line.
“The team was able to pull off wins against teams that we have consistently fought with all season long,” Whitaker said. “We came back and won against Haines and we had awesome play against Hoonah and Metlakatla. And our serving was phenomenal this weekend compared to the rest of the season.”
While phenomenal might be an abstract concept, the numbers tell the story with seniors Alyssa Allen serving a perfect series of games over the weekend, while Shayna Schultz missed one and Tori Gulla only faltered on two.
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