Colony wins in 3, earns state tourney berth

SOLDOTNA — Deja vu was just fine for Colony on Saturday, when the Knights won a rematch of their first round Northern Lights Conference Tournament opponent Soldotna.

The Knights topped the Stars 3-0 (30-28, 25-17, 25-22) to claim third place in the tournament and the NLC’s third seed into this week’s state volleyball tournament.

The Stars, after dropping their opening-round match to Colony, worked their way back for a shot at a state tournament berth by defeating Kenai on Friday and upsetting tournament host Skyview Saturday morning.

Soldotna ran out of steam in its rematch with Colony in the third-place match Saturday afternoon, however.

“I think we’re disappointed we’re not going to state. On the other hand, we played our best volleyball of the season this weekend,” said Soldotna head coach Bruce King.

The Stars came out firing on all cylinders against the Knights, leading the first game by as many as five points. However, the Knights chipped away at the Soldotna lead, forcing the game to extra points. Colony outlasted Soldotna for a 30-28 win. The loss drained some of the Stars’ energy, and they found it difficult to bounce back, dropping the second game 25-17.

”I think we came out really excited, but after that first game, it brought us down a little bit. It was really hard to get that energy back,” said Soldotna’s Heidi Westerman.

The Stars scratched their way back from an early deficit in game three, tying the game at 18 after trailing by as many as five. A big hit from Kaillee Skjold tied the game again at 20, but net play from Colony’s Tess Forstner and Allison Leigh, and a couple miscues by the Stars, gave the Knights a four-point cushion. Soldotna narrowed the gap to two points before Colony was able to put the game away, 25-22 and claim the conference’s third seed at the state tournament.

“SoHi is a great team. They hit the ball well, they block and they really came to play,” said Colony head coach Amy Carter.

Carter said her team was forced to make some adjustments after falling behind early in the first game.

”We moved our block just a little bit, and really focused on blocking them,” Carter said.

Shellina Irwin led the Knights with 15 kills along with 11 digs on defense. Forstner had nine kills and eight blocks. Mary Klapperich netted seven kills and four blocks, Leigh finished with eight kills and three blocks and Laura Maresh came up with a dozen digs. Kathryn Mayer served up four aces.