Busy weekend for volleyball team

Between hosting their first home games of the season, and running a takeout fundraiser dinner, Wrangell's high school volleyball team had a packed weekend.

Oct. 26 and 27 saw the Lady Wolves play at home for the first time since the volleyball season opened. They played against the Craig Panthers, the number one seeded team. Wrangell High School is currently tied for second place, according to Coach Jessica Whitaker.

The JV teams played first on Friday and Saturday. They played three games both evenings. Each game was hard fought, but the Panthers won all three games on Friday. The Lady Wolves were able to win one game on Saturday, however, with a score of 25 to 19. The other two games went to the Panthers.

Varsity played after the JV games, where each team competed to be the first to win three games. The Panthers took the first two wins on Friday, but the Lady Wolves were able to take a victory in the third game with a score of 25 to 20. This brought up a fourth game, which the Panthers won 13 to 25. Saturday's games were hard fought, but the Panthers were able to take three victories in a row. Despite the limited success, Whitaker said that her team did very well and had shown a lot of improvement.

"I think that they exceeded expectations, if you looked at our scores from last weekend against Craig, compared to this weekend," she said. "We couldn't take them to that fourth game, so we're improving. They were able to win one of the matches, and there were close games throughout this time."

Whitaker said that, judging by this weekend and previous performances, the Lady Wolves needed to correct some timing issues. She also said that improving their passing game would be a high priority for future games. Helen Decker, senior player with the team, agreed that passing was an area they needed to work on.

"Definitely our passing game, our back row game, our serve receive, so that's passing," Decker said. "We have some of the strongest hitters for the teams in Southeast, it's just our defense that's pretty lacking right now."

The volleyball team also held a fundraiser on Sunday evening, after the games were done. People were able to call ahead to order takeout meals, courtesy of Michelle's, and the team would pack up the meals where they could be picked up at the Elks Lodge Sunday evening.

The Lady Wolves will be heading to Petersburg for their second seeding tournament of the season this weekend, and will host a second round of home games on Nov. 9 and 10.