Knights split to finish

PALMER — An up-and-down regular season for Colony volleyball finished this weekend with a split, a three-game win over Homer on Friday and a three-game Saturday loss to Skyview.

At 5-5 in Northern Lights Conference play, the Knights go into this week’s regional tournament with the potential to play with anyone, said head coach Amy Carter. What the Knights need to do now is put together a full match of that potential.

“Well, we did finish a match, which has been one of our struggles,” she said after the win over Homer, 26-24, 25-21, 25-23. Although the Knights have given up some leads in matches this season, including a 3-2 loss after winning the first two games against Juneau-Douglas last week, they clamped down when it counted against the Mariners.

“Homer did come ready to play, and we played well overall,” Carter said.

That doesn’t mean the Knights don’t need to improve aspects of their game for the regional tournament.

“We didn’t pass well tonight,” Carter said after the Homer game. “We usually pass better than that. … But really, we have a lot of potential.”

One bright point from the weekend was the play of senior Kathryn Mayer, who had five kills and served well. Serves have been a challenge for her in previous games, but not on Friday, the coach said.

“She served really well tonight, that was a bright spot,” Carter said. “She’s back to serving really well.”

Senior captain Shellina Irwin also continued her strong season, leading the Knights with 25 kills, 13 digs and four aces on the weekend.

While the Knights won in three games, Homer made them work for it.

The first game saw the teams trade leads and side-outs much of the time up until they were tied at 24. A side-out to Colony gave Irwin the serve, and she put the game away with an ace, 26-24.

In the second game, the Mariners threatened to even the tally, taking an 18-12 lead on Colony, but Irwin again came up big. Down 21-20, Irwin served for five straight points to finish off Homer.

The deciding game saw Colony jump out to a fast 11-7 lead, but Homer still had some life, coming back to lead the Knights 15-13. The teams would trade points and side-outs, but Irwin again proved the difference-maker, putting away the match with her 14th kill of the night.

Along with Irwin’s sharp play, sophomore Mary Klapperich has been coming on strong the last part of the season, Carter said. She recorded 15 kills and five blocks over the pair of weekend games. Colony travels to Skyview High School this week for the regional tournament.

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.