Nome Takes an Early Lead

The Nome Nanooks took an early undefeated lead in the seeding portion
of the tournament today at Bethel Regional High School.

We left the school today at high noon to catch our chartered flight
with Bering Air. The plane was a nineteen-seater with two propellers.
This was the first time I had ever flown in anything this small or with
a propeller. And they joked with me that this doesn't even qualify as a
small plane with the puddle jumpers and nine-seaters out there. I also
got to watch the flight out of the cockpit window, which was a new
experience for me. The doors between the cabin and cockpit were open so
I got to watch the instrumentation too. We did get up to 25,000 feet
because this plane was pressurized. Apparently some of the smaller
planes don't go that high because they aren't pressurized. I got to
watch the landing too and we seemed to come in slanted a bit due to the
wind. It was definitely a different experience.

So then we started playing volleyball. It is set up this weekend as a
sort of round robin tournament. This first night and the first two
games of Saturday morning help us accumulate a record to seed us into
the tournament bracket. We played two two-game matches tonight. First
against Akiachak and the second against Chevak. We won all four games.

The first match, the girls seemed to be short of their rhythm at first.
They soon got into the swing of things. I think the system, as we were
playing right in the next court as another game was going on, seemed to
bug them at first. They figured it out quickly and took both games.
Nome seemed to have height on its side.

The second match seemed to go even better. We got up quickly worked
well together. It seemed to me that the only time the opponents were
scoring was when we were making mistakes on our own court. Rally
scoring definitely changes the game. There is a point scored every
single play, regardless of who is serving. When our serves go out or
into the net, it is a point for the other team. Mistakes kill with
rally scoring.

Our JV won its four games too. They get to play Dillingham tomorrow. If
they split the two games, there will be a third game tiebreaker to 15
points. The best JV team actually gets seeded into the varsity bracket.

Tomorrow morning we play again at 9 and 10 am. This is only for seeding
purposes but we still want to do well. I heard that the Bethel varsity
beat Barrow last weekend and Barrow, being in our division, have been a
thorn in our side, or so I've heard. We travel to Barrow next weekend
so it will be interesting to get a preview for that. Then the
tournament will start at 1 pm with the championship at 3 pm. The
tournament will be best-of-three matches and the championship game will
be best-of-five. Hope to be in that championship.

So now I am spread out in a teacher's lounge on my aerobed. This
spending the night is an interesting aspect to away games.