Moose stun top-seeded Stars

KENAI — After limping to a disappointing 4-6 conference record during the regular season, the Palmer volleyball squad was looking at the very real possibility of not reaching the state tournament for the first time in more than a decade.

As it turns out, rumors of Palmer’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Palmer stormed into the semifinals of the Northern Lights Conference tournament Thursday afternoon with a dominant 3-0 (25-14, 25-21, 25-23) win over the Soldotna Stars at Kenai Central High School.

“We’re playing really well right now,” Palmer head coach Steve Reynolds said. “It’s fun to watch.”

Palmer entered the tournament as the No. 4 seed from the Northern Division, but didn’t play anything like the team that lost in four games earlier this season to the Stars, the top seed from the South.

Behind some hot serving from southpaw senior Zoe Rozzi, the Moose stunned the Stars in the first game, reeling off 11 consecutive points — 10 on Rozzi’s serve — to trounce SoHi in the opening game.

Senior outside hitter Jordan Venzke had five kills in the opening game, while fellow senior outside hitter Mikaela Bolling added three. Bolling led all players with eight kills in the match, while Venzke finished with seven.

“The two outside hitters were on fire tonight,” Reynmolds said. “They lit it up.”

Equally impressive was Palmer’s defense, which continually frustrated Soldotna’s front line hitters by prolonging rallies and picking up points off of lengthy back-and-forth play.

“Our defense was tight tonight,” Reynolds said.

Palmer didn’t dominate the second game quite as much as the first, but still found themselves with four match points late in the game. Soldotna put up a brief fight, running off a pair of scores before double-hitting to hand the second game to the Moose. Six different players scored kills for the Moose in the game, a testament to the steady setting of senior Rashayne Zimmer, who had a game-high 13 assists.

Jordan Venzke said the difference Thursday was the steady team play Palmer was able to put together throughout the match.

“I think we’re really gelling as a team right now,” Venzke said.

The third game was the closest of the match, with the Stars briefly taking a couple leads midway through. SoHi even tied things up late at 22-22 on a big block from Mariah Hamilton on a Bolling spike, but Palmer responded with back-to-back kills from Chelsea Riley and Bolling to go up 24-22. Soldotna picked up one more point on a Moose out-of-bounds hit, before Bolling sealed the deal with a match-ending tip kill.

The match provided the Moose with some redemption for a four-game loss to the Stars earlier in the season and kept alive Palmer’s chances of reaching the state tournament for the 11th consecutive year. It also kept the Moose in the running for a repeat conference tournament championship. Palmer stunned Colony last season with an upset win in the NLC finals.

Steve Reynolds said that his team has the talent to make a similar run this season, and said he believes the Moose are peaking at just the right time.

“We’ve got some kids that are playing the best they’ve played all year,” he said.

The victory moved Palmer into a 5 p.m. semifinal match-up today against Kodiak, which beat Homer in three games (25-23, 25-18, 25-22) on Thursday afternoon.

Skyview 3, Wasilla 1

The Skyview Panthers moved into the semifinals with a 3-1 (25-18, 25-14, 17-25, 25-17) win over the Wasilla Warriors at Kenai Central High School on Thursday.

Skyview will now face Colony in the semifinals at 7 p.m. tonight. The Warriors are pushed back into the consolation bracket and will meet host Kenai at 3 p.m.