Moose advance to NLC volleyball final

PALMER — Throughout the 2014 Northern Lights Conference Championships, every team has had that moment in which everything just sort of falls apart.

The Palmer Moose went through that during the third set of their semifinal match with Kodiak. But buoyed by an early lead, and resilient attack, the Moose powered to a 3-1 (25-15, 25-22, 13-25, 25-16) win over the Bears during the NLC semifinals Friday at Palmer High.

Last week, Palmer wrapped up the regular season with a pair of five-set matches against the Bears in Kodiak. Friday, Palmer’s wins in the first two sets proved to be key, especially considering Kodiak’s lopsided victory in Game 3.

“It gives us a little bit of a cushion,” Palmer senior captain Mariah McNamara said of the Moose winning the first two sets of the match. “It’s so important. We went to five games with them down there. It gets you that boost. It helped the team so much.”

Despite falling behind early in the third game, McNamara said the Moose continued to have the confidence.

“Everyone was pumped and ready to play,” she said. “End of Game 3, we thought, we have this, take this home. We were ready to play our best and leave it on the court.”

With a pair of kills courtesy of McNamara, Palmer jumped to a 4-1 lead in Game 4. The Bears were able to cut the lead to two points, first with a kill (9-7) and an ace (13-11), but that would be the closest Kodiak would get in the final set of the match.

Ellen Groseclose followed a McNamara kill with an ace to give the Moose a 15-11 lead. Sammy Buresh knocked a ball hard over the net to extend Palmer’s lead to six.

“We were aggressive in the good way, not the bad way,” McNamara said.

Leiah Reichel led the Moose with 15 kills in the match. McNamara and Carly Venzke had 12 digs each. Naomi Graham led Palmer with 20 assists.

Palmer will play either Colony or Kodiak in the championship match of the double-elimination tournament. Regardless of the opponent, McNamara said the Moose are expecting a tough match.

“Our region is so evenly matched. You never know who is going to come out and play their best game,” McNamara said.