Knights fall in 3 to open tourney

WASILLA — In years past, some folks may have felt the best way to get to the state semifinals was to play the Mid-Alaska Conference champion in the first round. While that could have been a legitimate argument in the past, West Valley is out to destroy that theory.

The Wolfpack cruised to a 3-0 (25-20, 25-22, 25-16) win over the Colony Knights during the first round of the ASAA/First National Bank 4A State Volleyball Championships Thursday at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center in Wasilla.

“We’ve always felt when teams looked at the brackets, they always considered us as the warm up match,” West Valley head coach Dave Cox admitted after the win over the Knights. “And it’s hard not to when they look at our past record. This is the first time in as far as I can remember that we’ve won the first match. Usually, for us it’s two-and-out.”

Cox said before the season even began that the Wolfpack aimed to change things.

“This year, at the start of the season, the first team meeting, (we said), let’s go down to state and win that first match,” Cox said. “That was our goal.”

West Valley used consistent hitting by a handful of players to achieve that goal and earn a date with Cook Inlet Conference champion South Anchorage in the tournament semifinals.

Junior Julia Mackey led the Wolfpack with 16 kills. Sophomore Hannah Mattson added seven kills.

“More than one hitter was putting points on the board,” Cox said. “We’ve been struggling with that all year.”

The play of sophomore Collie Franz, four kills on a dozen attempts, was also key, Cox said.

Middle hitter Paige Wolters added four kills and seven blocks for West Valley.

“They have lots of hitters,” Colony head coach Amy Carter said. “They hit well.”

Cox said the play of Wolters on his other middle hitters was key against a Colony club that sports a pair of 6-foot blockers.

“(Our) net play was really dominant,” Cox said. “They have those two strong middles, but my middles stepped up and shut them down.”

Cox said, overall, the play of his entire team set the ‘Pack apart.

“Teamwork,” Cox said. “There really wasn’t one thing.”

For Colony, Carter said the Knights struggled to get going.

“We didn’t get our offense moving,” Carter said.

Senior Shellina Irwin and sophomore Mary Klapperich led the Knights with six kills each. Klapperich also posted a team-high six blocks. Irwin had a team-high eight digs.

Neither team led by more than three points until West Valley used a six-point run to break a 17-17 tie in the first game. Wolters capped a long volley with a kill to start the run and outside hitter Meagan Olsen found open space to give West Valley the 23-17 lead later during the run.

West Valley used an early run in the second game to take a 9-3 lead.

Led by Klapperich, Colony battled back with a short run. Kathryn Mayer tipped the ball over the net to cut West Valley’s lead to 18-17 later in the game, but West Valley pulled back the momentum with a five-point run.

In the third game, Klapperich collected one of her six blocks to tie the score at 7, but once again West Valley was able to separate itself from the Knights.

While West Valley moves forward, Colony is backed into a consolation semifinal match with Valley rival Wasilla today at 10:45 a.m. Wasilla, 3-0 against Colony this season, suffered a 3-1 loss to South Anchorage in the first round.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/matsu_sports.