Moose secure No. 1 seed with pair of wins over Bears

PALMER — Last season, Palmer popped the balloon for an undefeated Wasilla volleyball squad at the regional tournament. This year, the Moose showed Palmer’s the team to beat in the Northern Lights Conference with a pair of important wins Friday and Saturday over Kodiak.

Friday’s four-game win (25-7, 20-25, 25-18, 26-24) gave the Moose a slim NLC advantage over the Bears at 8-1 overall. The Bears fell to 7-2, and nearly pulled out a come-from-behind effort Saturday that would have tied the teams in conference play, a tie Kodiak would have the breaker for.

But senior Jenna Arlow helped spark a game-five rally (25-12, 25-21, 22-25, 13-25, 15-11) that propelled her Moose to another tough win and, more importantly, the No. 1 seed in the upcoming regional tournament.

“They had us on the tiebreaker, so that was an important couple of games,” Palmer head coach Steve Reynolds said. Beating a solid team like Kodiak “is a tough task, and today was a tough match. We won last night in four, but the scores were very close. Kodiak’s a very good team. They serve well, control the ball well.”

The Bears play so well, in fact, they nearly crushed an early two-game Palmer lead Saturday. The Moose started fast to win the first game 25-15, then took command of the match in game two with a 25-21 win. But the third and fourth games were all Kodiak.

“We started off fast and played really well,” Reynolds said. “I think being on the road caught up to Kodiak. In that third game, they hit well, they served well and when I thought it couldn’t get worse, we played worse in the fourth game. That was just a very bad game for us, a lot of unforced errors and lack of communication.”

It took the play of Arlow, a senior captain, to help stop Kodiak’s momentum in the fifth game. Arlow, who only missed one serve in Friday’s and Saturday’s matches, took the ball to serve five straight points in the decisive game and give Palmer the advantage.

“She showed some good skills,” Reynolds said of Arlow. “She’s a senior and it showed.”

Saturday’s win came off a close four-game battle Friday that saw the teams trade volleys and work hard for their points.

Like Saturday, the Moose started strong in the first game, playing solid defense and outscoring Kodiak 19-1 from the service line, including a dominating string of six straight points from Lily Cullers. The Moose started fast as well, with Kalene Smith serving Palmer to a quick 5-1 lead.

In the second game, Kodiak would show why it came into the match tied with Palmer for the NLC lead. Carole Lampl was strong from the baseline, serving up five straight points in the middle of the match to give the Bears the lead late and finish out the 25-20 win. That game also saw strong play from Kodiak’s front line of Manya Wandersee, Hannah Wandersee and Myoyeon Yo, who combined for four kills and nine blocks.

But the third game saw Palmer senior Morgan Morfe take her play to another level, recording five kills and serving out the final eight points of the match in the 25-18 win. She carried that intensity into the fourth game with three more kills and an ace from the service line. Cullers would put the match away 26-24 with an ace.

After Friday’s game, Reynolds said he was pleased with how the Moose responded to their loss to Wasilla three days earlier.

“We practiced well and I liked how we played tonight,” he said. “I think we only missed one serve that first game. Often, the first game does set the tone for the match.”

He also praised the play of Cullers, who as a setter and libero often doesn’t get the glory of a big kill or block.

“She does a lot of good work for us,” he said. “She passes very well and had some nice defensive plays, too.”

Morfe’s strong play may have been a response to the loss to the Warriors, Reynolds said.

“I think after the Wasilla match, she was disappointed and had something to prove,” he said. “She’s got a lot of weapons. I’ll be sad to see all those seniors go.”

Going into the regional tournament as the No. 1 seed means Palmer is a big target, Reynolds said. And as the Moose proved in their upset of Wasilla last year, Palmer needs to play its best volleyball every match.

“Nobody’s going to show up and say, ‘Oh, let’s just roll over for Palmer,’” he said.

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.