North Pole comeback spoils Houston’s hopes of first Mid-Alaska victory

HOUSTON — The Houston Hawks had the match in their grasp.

With a two-set lead, Houston — winless in Mid-Alaska play this season — was within reach of scoring its first conference win on its home court. But North Pole played the role of spoiler, winning the final three sets to steal a 3-2 (23-25, 21-25, 25-18, 25-15, 15-12) away from the Hawks at Houston High School on Saturday.

Despite the loss, Houston head coach Greg Gaither is pleased with the play of his Hawks, a team that is competing at the 4A level for just the second season.

“The good thing about what we did today, is it’s one more step in the right direction,” Gaither said. “We played right to the end with a good team.”

Houston used its sturdy defensive approach to open the match with wins the in the first two sets and led 10-2 in the third set, but the Hawks weren’t able to clamp down and seal the victory. Gaither said the Hawks are still trying to build a winning mentality within the HHS volleyball program and doing their best to erase the memory of a history that has not been too kind to the Hawks.

“In sports programs, when you’re trying to come from a team that gets beat on a regular basis, you have to get that taste in your mouth once in a while,” Gaither said. “You’ve got to get over the top, and that’s been hard for us to do.”

But Gaither continues to be pleased with the work of his squad as the Hawks continue ease their way forward.

“We’re playing some good volleyball right now,” Gaither said. “It’s just a matter of keeping the thing going and improving.”

Houston used the stellar defensive work of senior Kelsey Thamm and sophomore Amber Acton, and the all-around play of senior Ariel Katzenberger to make North Pole — a team that swept the Hawks in the Interior earlier this season — to work toward its win.

Thamm and Acton consistently made point-save plays in the Houston backcourt to give the Hawks a shot at winning for the first time in conference this season.

“Amber Acton had an absolutely outstanding match,” Gaither said. “I’m really pleased with her. She and Kelsey did some amazing stuff.”

Katzenberger, Houston’s senior middle hitter, did more than just stick to the net. In the first game alone, Katzenberger collected three kills, a blocked shot and four service aces.

“She covered a lot of ground today,” Gaither said.

Katzenberger recorded back-to-back kills early in the first game, to give the Hawks the 6-5 lead. Midway through the first set, Katzenberger came up with a big block no a Mackenzie Foran attempt to give Houston the 15-14 advantage.

Katzenberger sealed the win in the first set, scoring Houston’s final point with an ace.

The Hawks found themselves trailing 10-4 in the second set, but with solid play on the defensive side and a little resiliency, the Hawks used a 7-1 run to tie the game at 11-11.

Six of those seven points were scored via the North Pole error, but Houston’s scrappy defense denied the Patriot offense of taking control of the match.

“We’re a defensively structured team because of our size,” Gaither said, referring to his squad that is made up predominately of shorter, but quicker, players. “The opponent has to make some errors. We’ve got to force them to play long enough to make mistakes.”

North Pole’s size did eventually trump Houston’s defensive savvy. Foran and Meghan McKinnell — both tall middle hitters — were key to the Patriots’ wins during the final three sets of the match.

“The biggest problem I have is when we play a tall team, when both teams get tired, I lose the front game,” Gaither said. “Because of (North Pole’s) size, they can get away with a lot more up front.”

The Hawks have one more nonconfernece match on their regular season schedule — Houston is travels to Anchorage to play Anchorage Christian on Tuesday — and then are off until HHS hosts the Mid-Alaska Conference tournament in early November.

West Valley 3,

Houston 0

HOUSTON — The West Valley Wolfpack scored a 3-0 (25-12, 25-6, 25-21) win over Houston at Houston High School on Friday.

“West Valley came out and played almost two games of error free volleyball last night,” Gaither said on Saturday.

Colony 3, West Valley 0

PALMER — The Colony Knights scored a 3-0 (26-24, 25-23, 25-22) nonconfernece win over West Valley at Colony High School on Saturday.

Colony improved to 12-0 with the win.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.