Moose net win over Knights

PALMER — With a left hand and a hot hand, the Palmer Moose powered to a 3-1 (20-25, 25-17, 25-15, 25-19) win over the Colony Knights at Colony High School Tuesday.

Palmer’s Elliot Perkins served seven straight points and Jessica Cole notched a key kill to spark the run during the third game to help the Moose score the Northern Lights Conference victory over their rival.

With Palmer holding the slim 12-10 lead in the third game, and the sets tied at 1 in the match, the left-handed hitting Cole reached and sent an off-balanced attack into a hole in the Colony defense. Cole was able to reach back and keep the ball alive after Colony junior Mary Klapperich smacked a hard hit off the Palmer blockers.

“The left hand surprises people,” said Palmer head coach Steve Reynolds. “That’s a play where people are expecting the normal flow of the game — pass, set, hit. And all the sudden, with the left-hander, it’s pass, hit. It can be useful.”

Reynolds agreed the Cole kill was key in the game.

“She had a good game tonight,” Reynolds said. “She went back and served well for us. That was kind of a key hit. That one just came at a good time.”

That kill helped spark a Palmer run. Perkins served seven straight points to push Palmer’s lead to 20-11.

Perkins scored a pair of aces during the stretch.

“She definitely got us on a roll with that big string of points,” Reynolds said.

Palmer also used a late 5-1 run to win the key third game.

Colony won the first set of the match 25-20, before Palmer tied the match with a 25-17 in Game 2. In the fourth game, Perkins helped Palmer create an early cushion, serving four straight points to open the match.

Colony junior Allison Leigh recorded consecutive kills to cut Palmer’s lead to 6-4, but Palmer used another run to stay ahead.

The Knights were able to cut Palmer’s lead to a pair of points twice during the fourth game, and Leigh tipped the ball over the net to bring the Knights within one midway through the match. But each time Colony got within range, the Moose with surge.

“They just played very consistently through the whole game,” Colony head coach Amy Carter said. “They kept working it point after point after point.”

Three unforced Colony errors during a six-point Palmer run late in Game 4 helped cement the Palmer win.

“We were very inconsistent,” Carter said.

Senior Morgan Morfe led the Moose with 10 kills in the win.

“Morgan in the first game, she was our offense,” Reynolds said.

Jenna Arlow recorded 23 assists for Palmer. Lily Cullers had seven digs.

Leigh finished with a match-high 17 kills in the loss. Klapperich added 14 kills. Maryann Zmuda finished with 29 assists and 10 digs. Meagan Vance had 11 digs and two aces.

Colony 3, Lathrop 0

The Colony Knights scored a 3-0 (25-18, 25-14, 25-19) win over the Lathrop Malemutes at Colony High on Thursday.

Mary Klapperich led the Knights with 17 kills and five blocks. Leigh added 15 kills. Mariah Weydahl finished with eight digs.

Zmuda had 28 assists and five digs against the Malemutes.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and follow him at twitter.com/matsu_sports.