ANCHORAGE — The 2009 season has been a virtual roller coaster ride for the Palmer Moose.

The ups and downs included a slow start, midseason slump and late-season heroics.

The Moose recovered from that slow start to surge to a Northern Lights Conference title. But in the end, Palmer simply ran out of gas.

“It sort of felt like that,” Palmer head coach Steve Reynolds said after the Moose ended the season with a 3-0 (14-25, 18-25, 23-25) loss to the Soldotna Stars during the fourth-place match of the ASAA/First National Bank 4A State Volleyball Championships at West Anchorage High School Saturday morning. “We never really got going.”

Soldotna used the three-set sweep to claim fourth and force the Moose to settle for sixth place in their ninth trip to the state tournament in the last 10 seasons.

“It was really just kind of a rough outing,” Reynolds said.

The emotionally exhausted Moose worked through a three-day state tourney that oddly paralleled their 2009 season.

Palmer fell behind early during its opening-round loss to Dimond. The Moose quickly found themselves down by two sets, but won consecutive games to force a fifth set. Dimond was able to fend off the Moose and move forward.

During the second day, a rejuvenated Moose squad scored Mid-Alaska Conference champion West Valley in three games.

But on Saturday, the Moose fell in three.

“They worked pretty hard getting up for (Friday’s) match,” Reynolds said. “And they played well after a tough loss the night before.”

During the loss to Soldotna on Saturday, Palmer did enjoy a late run in the third game and nearly pulled off an improbable comeback.

The Moose were trailing 23-10 during the third set against Soldotna, but used 13 late points to leap back into the game.

The Stars were able to piece together a pair of points to escape with a 25-23 third-set win.

“We nearly staged the best comeback of the tournament,” Reynolds said. “I really like we almost pulled off an amazing upset. That was the highlight of the match this morning. There was really beautiful volleyball there. But too little too late.”

Senior Brittany Arlow capped a stellar individual effort throughout the weekend with nine digs in the loss. Arlow collected 11 against West Valley and 13 during the loss to Dimond.

Jenna Arlow recorded 13 assists and two aces against Soldotna, 16 assists and three aces against West Valley and 17 assists and eight kills against Dimond.

Nicole Cherrier led the Moose with 11 kills and four blocks during the win over West Valley.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.