Ninilchik came up to Nome to see us last year so they got to return the favor and invited us to their yearly tournament of 1A/2A/3A teams, the Ninilchik Spikefest.

First of all, it was an absolute gorgeous drive to get here. Seward had to kick us out before classes started today, 7:15 am! The drive was foggy but once the sun came up, it was beautiful. Trees and mountains! The mountains here in southern Alaska are exquisite right now, with slightly snow-capped peaks. Ahh.

So even though Mapquest.com said the drive from Seward would take five and a half hours, we got to the school by 10 am. We weren't even going fast either, so I don't know what the deal was. Then it was a crystal clear day down here, and I took plenty of pictures of the mountains across the bay and Ninilchik village.

Next came volleyball. There are five other teams here: Ninilchik, Nome, Seldovia, Su Valley, Nenana, and Skyview. (Lumen Christi backed out of Spikefest at the last minute by an email to the principal! They didn't even call! So Skyview JV was asked to come in their place.) Skyview is actually a 4A school, so they have a big talent pool.

We won our first match against Nenana 2 games to 0. This is a best out of three tournament. The girls played tough most of the match.

We got to watch other teams play, including Su Valley who utilize a very intricate rotation system. We saw a lot of action.

Then we played the Skyview JV team. The girls frustrated themselves with their own mistakes and were down in the first game by a few points, but they managed to come back to win that first game. The second game was where it all started falling apart. I thought they would be all right for the most part, but they battled back and forth and lost the second game. So we went to a third game. It was close, but the girls were frustrating themselves and each other. Though the final score was 28-26, Skyview pulled out a tight match. It was due to a lot of our own errors and not scoring offensive points when we should have. Even I cost us a point because I started the third game with a different girl and messed up the number on the lineup sheet. It was a whole team loss. It will make us stronger in the long run though.

More games tomorrow, against Seldovia early at 9 am, Su Valley, and Ninilchik.

(By the way, the picture is of the Ninilchik mascot, the wolverine. I love this one because the animal has a bird that it has killed right at its feet.)