Warriors open state volleyball tourney with victory

ANCHORAGE — The Wasilla Warriors faced the West Valley Wolfpack several times during the 2015 regular season, with each meeting producing the same result. The Warriors battled, but ultimately fell short.

But things were different Thursday.

On the biggest stage, with Wasilla playing in arguably its biggest match in several years, the Warriors finally scored that elusive victory over the Wolfpack.

Wasilla edged Mid-Alaska Conference champion West Valley 3-2 (23-25, 25-16, 25-16, 25-27, 15-10) during the first round of the ASAA/First National Bank 4A State Volleyball Championships at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage.

“I’m so proud of them. Every time we play West Valley, we’ve gone to a deciding set, a 15-point set. Every time, until now, we’ve lost to them,” Wasilla head coach Josie Cannon said. “This is the first time we’ve beat them in a deciding set all season, and we’ve played them several times.”

Wasilla’s first win over West Valley this season also snapped a streak of losses in the first-round of the state tournament. The Warriors, a state tournament team for just the fifth time since 2001, recorded their first victory in the first round since Wasilla captured the 2001 4A state title. Wasilla is making its first appearance in the state tournament since 2011.

Wasilla also handed West Valley its first loss in 2015. The Wolfpack are now 15-1 in best-of-5 matches.

Wasilla senior captain Courtney Anthony grabbed a match-high 31 digs to help Wasilla earn the victory, and move forward into a second-round match with South Anchorage.

“Courtney Anthony directed traffic back there, and played her heart out the entire game,” Cannon said of Wasilla’s libero. “Courtney’s an aggressive defender. That’s what I like.”

The Anthony-led defense helped Wasilla turn away dozens of opportunities fired by a feared West Valley front line, which features All-MAC selections Ruthy Hebard and Stella Knox.

Wasilla finished with 86 digs in the match. Merit Paramo added 15 to Anthony’s 31. Lindsey Cizek had 13, Maggie Zwolinski collected nine and Denisha Christiansen chipped in eight.

“Our defense really stepped up,” Cannon said.

During the last week of practice, Anthony said defense was a focal point for the Warriors, who finished second in the Northern Lights Conference tournament.

“Half the practice or more. Defense, defense, defense,” Anthony said. “We definitely focused on it a lot.”

The close losses to the Wolfpack during the regular season added motivation, she said.

“We knew coming in it was going to be a hard match. We knew we were going to have to work really hard,” Anthony said. “This is the first (match) win we’ve had against them, and we’re really happy about it.”

After falling short in the first game, Wasilla was able to grab the momentum quickly and go on large runs en route to wins in the second and third sets.

The Warriors opened with a 4-0 lead in the third game. After West Valley cut Wasilla’s lead to 4-3, the Warriors blew open the game with a nine-point run. Wasilla used kills by Paramo and Leya DePriest, and an Olivia Vincent block to push its lead to 21-10 in the third game.

Wasilla used a shorter run to snap a 16-16 tie in the fourth game. Vincent and Brooke Queripel bagged consecutive kills to give Wasilla the 20-17 advantage. Another Queripel kill and a West Valley error gave Wasilla the 23-20 lead, and pulled the Warriors closer to match point. But West Valley was able to cap the game with a 7-2 run to force the fifth game.

“Definitely the nerves hit us,” Anthony said of the tail end of the fourth set. “I think we got scatterbrained, and a little bit tired.”

But the Warriors weren’t going to let West Valley complete its rally in Game 5.

“Give it your all this last one. That was our mindset going into the fifth game,” Anthony said.

Queripel added a team-high 11 kills during the victory. Vincent finished with 10 kills, and DePriest added nine. Cizek led the Warriors with 28 assists and three aces. Vincent finished with a team-high five blocks.

South 3, Wasilla 0

South Anchorage scored a 3-0 (25-16, 25-23, 25-22) win over Wasilla during the second round of the 4A state volleyball tournament Thursday evening.

With the loss, Wasilla falls into the loser’s side of ASAA’s double-elimination bracket, and the Warriors are now guaranteed to see a Northern Lights Conference rival Friday evening. Wasilla will play either Kodiak or Soldotna Friday at 5 p.m. at the Alaska Airlines Center. Kodiak and SoHi play in an elimination game Friday at 1 p.m.

Both the Bears and Stars suffered losses during the first round Thursday. East Anchorage beat Kodiak 3-1. Dimond swept Soldotna 3-0.

Wasilla played both Kodiak and Soldotna during the region tournament. The Warriors opened their NLC tourney with a loss to Soldotna on the first day, but rebounded to beat Soldotna later in the tournament. Wasilla’s win over the Stars pushed the Warriors into the NLC title match. Kodiak beat Wasilla 3-1 to win the NLC crown.

With the double-elimination format, Wasilla can still play its way into the 4A state championship match.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.