THE BENCH – The Lady Nanook bench is always enthusiastic as the action on the floor gets intense. The Lady Nanooks played and won at home against Bethel and Monroe last weekend.

Lady Nanooks dominate Monroe, Bethel

The Lady Nanooks volleyball team hosted Monroe Catholic and Bethel over the weekend and dominated both teams. Bethel brought both JV and varsity teams. Monroe, of Fairbanks, is 13-4 and currently in first place in the Aurora Conference.

A week ago the Nanooks competed at the West High Spiketacular Tourney in Anchorage.  Nome finished 2-5 in pool play against competition that was mostly 4A.  On Saturday Nome lost to West Anchorage and Colony in the bracket portion of the tourney. 

The Nugget asked Nanook coach Lena Danner about her team’s smooth, cohesive play. “I have seven seniors, six of them have been playing together for the last four years,” said Coach Danner. “So they’re pretty cohesive together, especially my setters.”

“Three of them were full-time varsity last year and then the other four trickled in toward the end of the season to swing, but only at the very end of the season,” she said.

The annual alumnae tournament scheduled for next weekend was postponed so the Nanooks will be headed to Utqiagvik, formerly known as Barrow, to play Valdez, Eielson and Barrow in two weeks.

“Valdez won state last year so it will be interesting to see them,” said Danner. “Barrow lost a lot of seniors last year so it will be interesting to see us up against them. They’re the last people in the region that we need to play so it will be nice to size up where we are in the region.”

Volleyball fans will remember Barrow had some frightening players up front last year. “Two of them are now playing college volleyball,” said Danner. “They both got offered to play at UAA but they had to play at a community college first. UAA has their eyes on them. That’s some heavy meat coming from Barrow!”

While the crowd at the games was healthy there was plenty of space for more volleyball fans. It’s a great spectator sport and the more you watch the more you want to watch. So next time the Lady Nanooks are playing at home turn off the TV, get off Facebook and show up at the gym to see real action.

The Nome Nugget

PO Box 610
Nome, Alaska 99762
USA

Phone: (907) 443-5235
Fax: (907) 443-5112

www.nomenugget.net

External Links