October 4-5, 2024
Courtesy of JV Volleyball Coach
Weekend Team Accomplishments:
Bucs’ Top Servers: Eeva Tiura and Savanah Pruitt
Bucs’ Top Attacker: Savannah Barton
Bucs’ Top Passer: Laela Scott
This past weekend the Valdez Buccaneers traveled to Fairbanks to play against the Hutchison Hawks. After a delayed departure and a long drive, the JV squad jumped off the bus and onto the court for their first set of the match. The first set of the match was a brutal defeat. The JV Bucs struggled with their serve receive passing and were unable to set up their offense against the Hawks. Hutchison won handily 13-25 but not before Jezelle Eskilida earned her first kill of the season from outside and River Smelcer hustled down two great saves. In the second set, the Bucs came out strong with a 18 to 11 point lead. Unfortunately communication began to falter and the Hawks were able to steal their second win of the match (21-25). Serving and communication improved for the Bucs in the third set and the Bucs were able to claim a comfortable victory (25-13). Unfortunately in the 4th set the Hawks worked their way back from behind once again to beat the Bucs 22-25 and claim the match victory.
The Bucs were up bright and early Saturday for a rematch against the Hutchison Hawks. We switched up our line up between the first and second set to force the Hawks to make adjustments to our players. In the first set we started off with Parker King (S), Eeva Tiura (OH, DS), Savanah Pruitt (MH), River Smelcer (S, RH), Savannah Barton (OH, DS), Laela Scott (DS), with Whitney Major (MH), Ava Mitchell, and Laken Unger (RH) coming in off the bench. Pruitt had a strong set with 7 serves (including 4 aces) and 5 attacks (including 2 kills). Smelcer exhibited strong serving with 5 serves (including 2 aces) as well. Barton was aggressive from outside with 5 additional attacks to keep the Hawks on their toes. The Bucs won the first set 25-23.
In the second set of Saturday morning we switched in Cersei Strickland (MH), Jezelle Eskilida (OH), Harper Ownbey (RH), and Olivia Marchant (MH). Tiura went on an incredible 10 serve streak without any serving errors, Smelcer had 5 attacks with 2 kills, and Mitchell dished up 5 serves to the Hawks at a critical time in the set. The Bucs narrowly won the second set 25-23.
The Bucs returned to their first line up in the third and final set of the match handily beating the Hawks 25-13. King had two strong serving streaks that included 4 aces and the game winning serve. Tiura and Smelcer also had long serving streaks with multiple aces (Tiura – 4, Smelcer-5). The Hawks struggled to return balls back to the Bucs during this set, but when they did the girls were able to claim kills from King, Tiura, and Pruitt.
The Bucs were much more successful on Saturday and ended the weekend splitting with the Hawks.
We look forward to completing in the Luman Christi 2A Varsity competition this coming weekend! Go Bucs!
