Knights build 2-game lead, but West Valley rallies for victory

By JEREMIAH BARTZ Frontiersman.com

PALMER — As the Colony Knights threatened to sweep, West Valley middle hitter Ruthy Hebard sent a blast across the net. The 6-foot-2 sophomore followed with a big solo block on the following point.

At that point, something clicked for Hebard and the Wolfpack.

Despite dropping the first two games of the match, West Valley rallied for a 3-2 (14-25, 22-25, 25-22, 27-25, 15-10) win over the Knights at Colony High School Thursday.

“They played way more confident in the third and fourth game,” Colony head coach Amy Carter said. After winning the first two sets, Colony led by as many as six points in the third game. But led by Hebard, West Valley was able to climb back into the match. Heberd broke a 17-17 tie with a kill and pushed West Valley’s lead to 19-17 with the block on the next point. The Wolfpack also used a pair of service aces to put together a five-point run.

“Of course, as they kept winning games, they got way more confident. They’re a good team,” Carter said.

Hebard recorded four kills and four blocks in that key third game. She finished the match with 11 kills and a match-high 10 blocks.

“She covers a lot of area,” Carter said.

The Wolfpack, who have already won the Mid-Alaska Conference regular season title, improve to 8-2 with the win.

The Knights built the two-game lead with a balanced attack and the setting of Mackenzie Everett. Ashley Turcotte led Colony with 17 kills, nine digs and four service aces. Turcotte recorded aces on three consecutive serves as the Knights closed the door on the Wolfpack in Game 1.

Sophie Hall and Brooke Nezaticky added 13 kills each. Chelsea Friesen picked up 24 digs, and Everett finished with 50 assists.

Thursday’s match continued a very busy October for the Knights, a month spent mostly on the road.

The Knights crammed trips to three different areas of the state into an eight-day span earlier this month. The trek started with a two-day trip to play Northern Lights Conference rival Kodiak in Kodiak on Oct. 4-5. Four days later, the Knights were in Soldotna to play the Stars. The following night, Oct. 10, Colony traveled to Kenai.

Following the Kenai match, the Knights boarded a plane and flew to Juneau to compete in Juneau-Douglas’ two-day tournament.

“It was a lot of fun, tiring for the kids of course. For all of us, it was exhausting,” Carter said of the trip.

The Knights (2-6 in NLC play) cap the regular season with a pair of matches during the upcoming week. Colony is at Palmer on Tuesday and hosts Wasilla Nov. 1.

Carter said she has certainly seen improvement during a busy month of volleyball.

“We’re coming along. We’re definitely playing better now than we did two weeks ago,” Carter said.