Knights score volleyball win over Warriors

WASILLA — The Colony Knights sport the green, white and black, but Knights head coach Steve Reynolds had another color for Colony libero Madison Wakaliuk.

“Maddie was golden tonight,” Reynolds said after Colony scored a 3-1 (25-19, 13-25, 25-11, 25-18) win over Wasilla Tuesday night at Wasilla High School.

Wakaliuk served the final eight points of the decisive fourth set of the match, which included three aces. Wakaliuk used the first of her three aces of the span to tie the score at 18. Wakaliuk followed with her second straight ace to give Colony its first lead of the fourth game.

“Maddie was great for us tonight. Serving, digging,” Reynolds said.

Wakaliuk finished with 16 digs in the win. Reynolds also praised the work of Hallee Yundt on the defensive side, who supplied a team-best 23 digs. Sam Bryant finished with a team-high 20 kills to help Colony improve to 2-0 in the Northern Lights Conference. Hannah Duguid chipped in 22 assists.

Overall, Reynolds said the Knights were able to improve as the match progressed.

“We had struggles receiving serves for a while, which did us in, in that second game,” Reynolds said. “Good solid defense and tough serving is what kept us alive.”

Wasilla head coach Katie Oxspring said, despite the loss, she is seeing good things in a varsity team that has lost a lot since the end of the 2018 season.

“We are a really young team,” Oxspring said.

Wasilla graduated nine seniors from a squad that won the NLC title last season. Senior Kamryn Broach, who earned Co-NLC Player of the Year honors last season, is still recovering from a knee injury she suffered during the 2019 spring soccer season. Oxspring said Wasilla was dealt an additional blow with the loss of setter Heidi Brewer to injury. But regardless of all of the adversity, Oxspring said her Warriors are working to overcome the obstacles.

“We’re learning and growing,” Oxspring said. “They’re learning the game of volleyball, and also having to play at a higher pace. I’m really impressed with what they’re doing. Every day we’re learning new things and implementing them.”

Wasilla is now 2-1 in region play.

Contact Frontiersman managing editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.