Captain leads Knights to sweep of Kodiak

DARRELL L. BREESE/ Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - Aggressive, patient, competitive has a thorough understanding of the game.

Might be how Colony High School volleyball coach Amy Carter could describe captain Jordan Pokryfki.

Carter can add serving specialist to the list of terms she uses to describe the team's floor leader. Pokryfki took control of the action Saturday, serving three aces and helping the Knight's build a 9-0 lead against visiting Kodiak in the second game.

Pokryfki efforts gave Colony a sweep of the two-match series over its conference foe. Saturday's 3-0 (25-11, 25-11, 25-20) win came on the heels of a four-game (25-12, 25-12, 18-25,25-22) victory Friday.

Intensity on the court has never been a problem for Pokryfki.

While she'll crack a smile after a good play, she is normally all business once play begins. But when fellow senior Hallie Huggins pointed out that Pokryfki had served her seventh straight point during the second game, Pokryfki couldn't hold back a huge grin.

That little moment shared between teammates helped alleviate any pressure Pokryfki may have been feeling, allowing her to relax enough to serve for two more points. During her run she managed three aces.

"I was feeling a little pressure until Hallie made me laugh," Pokryfki said. "But more then anything, I was getting pumped up. If she didn't break the tension, I might have gotten too pumped and done something silly."

Instead, all she did was run the Knights attack with enough variety to keep the Bears defense confused. Pokryfki managed to set up five different teammates for 21 kills during the three game match, adding four of her own.

"I try to mix things up on offense," Pokryfki said. "We have a lot of weapons, and if I can get them all involved we're going to have a good result."

After her sensational second game, the Knight's slipped into a lull for the third game, committing 12 errors, a fact that troubled both Pokryfki and Coach Carter.

"We kind of did the same thing last night too," Pokryfki said of the third game lull. "We got a little comfortable and they came back and won the third game."

"I hope it's something that can be eliminated as the season progresses," Carter said. "Kodiak is a scrappy team and we nearly let them back in with all the mistakes."

After all she did during the second game of the match it was fitting the Pokryfki tallied the final point of the match with a big spike from the right side in game three.

Friday night the Knights won thanks to strong defensive play from Huggins and Kelcy Joynt, they combined for 15 digs in the four game victory.

Carter was happy to get the season started with such a strong performance against a conference opponent.

"It's always good to get a win against a conference team," she said. "Being able to get two in the same weekend and at the start of the season is the ideal way to get things started."

Colony (2-0 in conference and overall) travels to Fairbanks for three days of volleyball action starting

Thursday.

Darrell L. Breese can be reached at 352-2267 or at darrell.breese@frontiers-man.com.