Knights, Warriors move into NLC title match

PALMER — The region tournament didn’t start for Wasilla they way the Warriors envisioned. But Wasilla bounced back in a big way.

After falling to rival Colony on Thursday, the Warriors earned consecutive wins over Palmer and Soldotna during the second day of the Northern Lights Conference volleyball championships Friday at Colony High School.

Wasilla stayed alive with a 3-1 win over Palmer Friday afternoon. A few hours later, the Warriors celebrated an 18-16 win in the fifth set of a 3-2 victory over the Soldotna Stars. With the win over SoHi, Wasilla moved into the NLC title match and earned the conference’s final berth to the state tournament.

“I’m just glad that was not our last match of the season,” Wasilla head coach Katie Oxspring said after the win over the Moose.

Wasilla entered the tourney as the top seed and an 8-0 record in conference play during the regular season. Fifth-seeded Colony upset Wasilla 3-0 on the first day of the tournament.

“The big thing, I took full responsibility for putting too much pressure on my players,” Oxspring said. “We came in 8-0 and had a lot to lose, and they already felt that pressure. I didn’t do my job as a coach to take off that pressure.”

Oxspring said she wanted to make sure her players carried a different mindset on the court Friday.

“We came out and I said, I’m going to be their biggest fan,” Oxspring said. “We had fun, we played volleyball and we won.”

Wasilla senior Aleks Kvalheim sparked the Warriors late in the win over Palmer. With the teams locked at 10 in the fourth game, Kvalheim ripped a ball across the net and tucked the hit just inside the back line. It was the start of a six-point run for the Warriors, which also included a Tristan Merchant ace. Prior to the Kvalheim kill, neither team had led by more than two points in the fourth set. Following the run, Wasilla never led by less than five.

“We need to get that momentum and get it going at the end of the game,” Oxspring said.

Wasilla won the first two sets of the match, but Palmer marched back in the match with a 25-17 win in the third game.

Wasilla followed the win over Palmer with a thriller in the night cap, edging SoHi 18-16 in the fifth set of a 3-2 victory. Kaitlyn Cook had a big dig to keep play alive and Cook helped set up a Heidi Brewer kill that gave Wasilla a 16-15 lead. Soldotna tied the score at 16, but consecutive unforced SoHi errors gave Wasilla the win.

Soldotna finished third in the tournament.

Early in the day, Colony advanced to the conference championship with a 3-0 win over SoHi. The Knights, who finished 2-6 in the NLC during the regular season, have now swept their first three opponents of the tournament. Colony beat both Kodiak and Wasilla 3-0 on Thursday.

Colony and Wasilla will cap the tourney in the NLC title match Saturday at noon at Colony High. The Knights are the two-time defending conference champions.

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