Falcons, Knights Spikers Co-Champs at JIVE

Thunder Mountain's Molly Brocious kills a shot against Colony during the Juneau Invitational Volleyball Extravaganza at Juneau-Douglas Yadaa.at Kalé on Saturday. (Klas Stolpe)

Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - After roughly 100 matches spread over two days through two gymnasiums, the end result of the Juneau Invitational Volleyball Extravaganza was…a tie.

  The Colony Knights from Palmer defeated the Thunder Mountain Falcons in the first championship game and TMHS came back to defeat Juneau-Douglas Yadaa.at Kalé in a play-in game and Colony in the second title game. TMHS and Colony each had one loss but due to the Knights needing to catch a flight, both squads agreed to share the JIVE title.

  “We got to play Colony up north and we got to play them in our gym and host them so we are using the term that Colony is our friend,” TMHS coach Julie Herman said. “We got to talk strategy a little bit with them. So to tie them, to finish that way, it actually felt even, it just felt awesome. When you get to play teams that are that good and you play with them and you play well… did you lose or did you grow? We are not really worried about wins or losses at this point, we are worried about growth and continuing to get ready for regions.”

  All Tourney selections were Sitka’s Chloe Morrison; TMHS’ Moana Tuvaifale, Sydney Strong and Molly Brocious; JDHS’ Merry Newman and Brooke Sandford; and Colony’s Kaylee Janulek, Taylee Weiss, Abby Gooch and Liyah Pilgrim.

  Combined statistics provided by TMHS for the Falcons include:

Points Scored On Serve & Aces - Tuvaifale 68, 26; Strong 62, 14; Brocious 61, 16; Ashlyn Gates 58, 13; Mallory Welling 38, 9; Talita Toutaiolepo 17, 2; Kaidree Hartman 2, 2; Jorda Basaliso 6, 0; Ann-alese Rentrop 1, 0; Elise Duran 1, 0; Jaden Rosenbrinch 1, 0.

  Pass Attempts - Toutaiolepo 101, Welling 86, Strong 70, Tuvaifale 30, Brocious 21, Basaliso 16, Rosenbrinch 6, Rentrop 4, Riley Harp 3, Hartman 3.

Kills & Kill Attempts - Welling 79, 191; Tuvaifale 53, 151; Strong 52, 141; Brocious 18, 70; Gates 17, 57; Rosenbrinch 9, 18; Harp 5, 9; Solveig Wolter 3, 24.

  Assists - Brocious 139; Tuvaifale 94, Strong and Toutaiolepo 1 apiece.

Blocks - Wolter 10, Brocious 7, Gates 6, Welling 4, Rosenbrinch 2, Harp and Strong 1 apiece.

  Digs - Strong 101, Toutaiolepo 89, Welling 84, Tuvaifale 82, Brocious 58, Gates 28, Basaliso 11, Wolter 9, Rosenbrinch 9, Rentrop 6, Duran 3, Hartman 3, and Harp 1.

  Fifty-six games were played among nine teams on Friday’s opening round robin schedule to seed a two-pool format Saturday morning for seeding in bracket championships.

  “We got a lot of growth this weekend,” Herman said. “We got to work deep into our bench. Whene you get to play in a tournament where everybody gets to play and the team continues to grow and improve you leave the weekend feeling really good.”

  Thunder Mountain, Juneau-Douglas Yadaa.at Kalé, Colony, Sitka and Craig battled through 20 games Saturday morning for seeding in the Gold Bracket. Colony earned the top spot, followed by TMHS, JDHS, Craig and Sitka.

  Klawock, Mt. Edgecumbe, Metlakatla, Petersburg and Haines battled through Silver Bracket seeding with Mt. Edgecumbe moving up to the Gold Bracket before the Silver Bracket Tournament.

  The more competitive Gold Bracket tournament opened with fourth-seeded Craig falling to fifth-seed Sitka and third-seed JDHS defeating sixth-seed Mt. Edgecumbe.

  Top seed Colony then gave Sitka their first loss and JDHS beat second-seed TMHS.

  In the losers bracket, Sitka eliminated Mt. Edgecumbe and TMHS eliminated Craig. TMHS then eliminated Sitka and JDHS to earn the championship match against Colony. TMHS won the first match, which gave both teams one loss. Due to a travel time crunch both teams agreed that getting Colony to the airport on time superseded the if-necessary game for the title and the teams were crowned co-champions.

  The Silver Bracket saw Klawock defeat Haines and Petersburg top Metlakatla to open play. Petersburg then fell to Klawock for their first loss. Metlakatla eliminated Haines and Petersburg defeated Metlakatla to face Klawock again. Klawock beat Petersburg to take the Silver title.

Above - JDHS senior Brooke Sandford kills a shot against Craig during the JIVE tournament at JDHS.

Above - Sitka's Chloe Morrison hits against JDHS junior Ashley Laudert during the JIVE tournament.

Above - JIVE all-tournament selections: TMHS' Moana Tuvaifale, Molly Brocious, and Sydney Strong, Sitka's Chloe Morrison, and JDHS' Brook Sandford and Merry Newman.