Moose outlast Warriors at PHS

PALMER — When the Palmer Moose played Wasilla earlier this season, Palmer didn’t need much time to score a quick sweep over the Warriors. But things were a little different during the second meeting of the season.

Palmer needed a late rally to outlast Wasilla 3-2 (25-17, 23-25, 25-19, 23-25, 15-13) Tuesday at Palmer High School.

“Wasilla’s a good team. The last time we played them we certainly didn’t expect to escape with a three-game win. This is what I was expecting last time,” Palmer head coach Steve Reynolds said after his team’s victory. “I figured the two teams would battle both times.”

After Wasilla won Game 4 to set up the decisive fifth set, the Warriors jumped to a quick 4-0 lead in the final game. Wasilla soon pushed its lead to 6-1.

“They were serving us stuff, we were not handling it well,” Reynolds said. “Plus, (Wasilla) was playing good defense tonight.”

Palmer steadily began to claw its way back into the fifth game, and senior Mariah McNamara used consecutive kills to tie the game at 10. Senior Leiah Reichel collected a pair of kills during a short Palmer run that gave the Moose a 14-11 advantage. Wasilla pulled within a point, with back-to-back points, a stretch that included a Kylie Gilbert kill. But with the Moose leading 14-13, Reichel iced the game with the final kill of the night.

“I felt like we gutted it out,” Reynolds said.

McNamara led the Moose with 20 kills in the match. Carly Venzke had 13 digs, and Allie McPheters collected 19 assists.

Amber Sizemore led Wasilla with 14 kills and 19 digs. Gilbert collected 11 kills and three blocks. Brooke Queripel had seven blocks.

Sylvia Tuisaula added 14 kills, and was key in Wasilla’s win in Game 4.

Wasilla scored three of its final four points of the fourth game with kills courtesy of Tuisaula.

“Making those clutch kills, especially when Amber got hurt. We needed to rely on Sylvia to make some clutch plays, and she did it,” Wasilla head coach Josie Cannon said. “She came up big.”

She knocked a ball off the Palmer block to give the Warriors the 22-21 lead in Game 4, pushed a ball across the net to give Wasilla a 23-22 lead and used another kill to extend Wasilla’s edge to 24-22.

“She’s settled into her position and has done a really great job at being smart, but also being aggressive,” Cannon said.

Setter Peyton Mobley was all over the court for Wasilla, finishing with 52 assists, 14 digs, six kills and six aces.

With the win, Palmer (7-1 in Northern Lights Conference play) clinched a top-2 seed and a first-round bye in the upcoming NLC tourney, which starts Nov. 6 at Palmer High School.

Wasilla dropped to 4-5 with the loss.