Lady Nanook Volleyball team plays at ASAA State Tournament
On November 5, the Lady Nanook Volleyball team earned their spot at State by placing second in the Northern Conference Regional Tournament. Following this accomplishment, the team traveled to Anchorage for the ASAA State Tournament on Wednesday, November 10. This is exciting news because the Nanook Volleyball team hasn’t qualified for State since 2018. The Lady Nanooks didn’t have the chance to have a ‘regular’ season last year because of COVID, which had an enormous impact on the team. However, the players overcame this obstacle and worked hard to make up for the gap year.
On the day of arrival in Anchorage, the team had practice at the Alaska Airlines Center, which was a drastic change from their normal practice environment. Despite this change, the players entered the tournament confident and ready to play.
On Thursday, November 11, the first game was against the Sitka High Wolves, who were seeded first in their region. The Nanooks fought hard, but ended up losing in three sets to the Wolves (15-25, 12-25, 825). The player of the match from the Lady Nanooks was Kellie Miller, a Junior and one of the captains of the team.
On the next day of the tournament, the Nanooks took on Monroe Catholic in the consolation bracket. Sadly, the Nanooks lost this game in three sets which took Nome out of the tournament. Again, the games were very close 20-25, 23-25 and 1325. The player of this match was Nome’s Lupe Callahan, who is also a captain of the team and a Senior. She stated, “I think our team did an extraordinary job this year when it came to our competitiveness and sportsmanship. Going a year without Regions, I was a little doubtful about how we would perform, but this team blew my expectations out of the water. Even at State and Regions, we kept pushing when the games got tough, and the outcome didn’t look so bright. I’m glad we were able to fight hard and prove to ourselves that we deserved a spot at state. I couldn’t have asked for a better team to spend my Senior year with and I can’t wait to see what they do in the future.”
The Lady Nanooks spent the remaining days of the State tournament cheering for other teams and watching the suspenseful games. In the championship game, the Valdez Buccaneers played against the Kenai Central Cardinals. The game went to five sets but ended with the Buccaneers defeating the Cardinals and winning the 3A Volleyball State Championships.