Knights top Warriors, fall to South on second day of state tourney

ANCHORAGE — It was a busy Friday at the Alaska Airlines Center, but nobody has a longer day than the Colony Knights.

After winning consecutive matches over Northern Lights Conference rivals Wasilla and Soldotna to stay alive, Colony’s season came to an end with a 3-1 (14-25, 12-25, 25-23, 10-25) loss to state power South Anchorage in an elimination match during the second day of the ASAA/First National Bank 4A State Volleyball Championships in Anchorage.

Colony hit the floor for the first and last 4A match of the day Friday. Nine hours before the first serve in the South match, the Knights were on the court facing Wasilla in a rematch of the NLC title match.

A week after falling to the Warriors in a barn-burner, Colony ended Wasilla’s season sweeping the Warriors 3-0 (25-11, 26-24, 25-22).

“I just think we wanted to win and our competitive side came out, because we played Wasilla a lot this season and we know they’re a good team,” Colony senior Isabel List said. “I think we just didn’t think about what we were doing and just like played our hearts out.”

Colony and Wasilla played two regular season matches prior to matchups in the NLC tournament. Colony head coach Steve Reynolds said that playing a Valley opponent in the state tournament is actually an advantage.

“It’s a positive thing because everyone has to elevate their game because we do practice, we do club together, we see each other all winter long, and so I have to get better because yes I know you but you know me too. So everybody has to get better and that’s why I like it ,” Reynolds said. “It’s a good reason to not rest on our laurels. We have got to keep coming up with new tricks and learning things and improving.”

Reynolds praised Hallee Yundt, Madison Wakaluik, and List as keys to victory over Wasilla on Friday.

“I thought Hallee had a good day today, and she had kind of been off yesterday. It was good to see her with a good day today and I think she had something to prove there, maybe just to herself,” Reynolds said.

“Isabel has done a ton of work for us all season long. She’s a great athlete just so much fun to have on the team. Maddie, our libero, liberos are unsung heroes. I thought she had a really good game today, passing well, scrapping for it on defense. When a libero is good they kind of go unnoticed… Those three were key late in the season.”

The Knights started off hot with Wakaliuk rattlling off five straight service points to start the match. Wasilla Libero Tristan Merchant brought the first set within six, but Walakiuk stepped back behind the line to serve and iced the set for the Knights with three aces. List slammed the final kill in between the defense to make a statement with a commanding 14-point victory in game one, but the Warriors were not defeated just yet.

Wasilla took a six-point lead with help from Merchant’s serves in the second set.

“Tristan serves those tough floaters that gave us problems,” Reynolds said.

The Knights charged back to tie and eventually take the lead from Wasilla with help from Yundt, who served eight straight points, including two aces. Wasilla tied the game with an ace from Merchant, but Jada Schultz helped the Knights take the lead, and a Wasilla error sealed the crucial second game for Colony.

The Knights had their work cut out for them in the third set as well. The Warriors led for much of the third set, but could not pull away from the Knights. The Warriors largest lead in the third set was only five points. Reynolds praised the defensive effort of the Warriors.

“They tend to be able to go and get it and still attack you in some manner, like, not just give you a free ball. So that’s another thing that they do really well,” Reynolds said.

While the Knights had struggles with adversity early in the season, they calmly put the Warriors away in the third game, preventing a comeback effort. With service efforts from Samantha Bryant and consecutive kills from Cianna Jorgenson, the Knights tied the game at 21 and never looked back.

“We just talked about responding differently to things and early in the season our response to getting backed into a corner was to cower,” Reynolds said. “We kind of reminded them about choosing the response that you want in that situation and coming out swinging instead, so I think that was maybe just enough to get the mental part correct,” Reynolds said.

Isabella Brown finished off the third set and the game for the Knights.

Colony followed the win over Wasilla with a 3-1 (23-25, 25-22, 25-13, 25-21) victory over Soldotna. South, which topped Colony in the first round on Thursday, beat the Knights for the second time in the double-elimination tournament Friday night.