Palmer enters NLC tournament as No. 1 seed

PALMER — Not long before Steve Reynolds headed to his team’s practice Monday afternoon, the longtime Palmer head coach still wasn’t quite sure where the Moose would be seeded in the Northern Lights Conference Championships, which starts Thursday in Kodiak.

Thanks to Palmer’s 9-1 mark in NLC play, Reynolds knew his squad — the three-time defending NLC champs — would be seeded either first or second, and would have a first-round bye in the brand-new double-elimination tourney. But Monday afternoon, conference activities directors were still trying to figure out how to break the tie between the Moose and the Soldotna Stars, who are also 9-1.

Either way, Reynolds wasn’t overly concerned.

“I don’t really see that it makes a huge difference,” Reynolds said. “Either side of the bracket we’ll have a good opponent.”

For the record, the Moose are seeded first. That news broke about 3 p.m. Monday after a coin flip was used to determine the top two seeds. Admittedly less concerned with his team’s seed, Reynolds has put more thought into the new format of the NLC championships, which includes only six teams and a true double-elimination bracket.

“Apprehensive is the only thing,” Reynolds said of his thoughts of the new format. “I wouldn’t say nervous or dislike. I don’t know what to expect. It’s all different.”

When former NLC teams Skyview and Homer dropped to the 3A level following the 2011 season, the old eight-team format had to be scrapped. This year, first-round byes were awarded to the top two squads and teams still have the opportunity to play their way back into the championship game after the first loss. Despite the loss of two teams, the NLC kept its three automatic berths to the state tourney.

With all of the changes, Reynolds said all of the teams will be experiencing something very different, regardless of seed.

The third through sixth seeds will play in the first two matches of the tourney Thursday. Fourth-seeded and host school Kodiak meets fifth-seeded Wasilla at 1 p.m. Colony, the third seed, faces sixth-seeded Kenai at 3 p.m.

Palmer will meet the Kodiak-Wasilla winner Thursday at 6 p.m., and Soldotna faces the Colony-Kenai winner at 8 p.m. Reynolds said he knows there’s much that can happen at the region meet.

“Anything can happen at the region tournament. We’ve been the spoiler, and we’ve been the spoiled,” Reynolds said.

Colony (6-4) locked up the third seed with a pair of wins over Kodiak (4-6) last weekend at Colony High.

“It’s a good place for us to be,” Colony head coach Amy Carter said.

Colony opens play against a winless Kenai team the Knights swept twice during the regular season.

Wasilla (2-8) opens play against host Kodiak (4-6). The very young Warriors opened the season with only one player with any varsity experience, and still don’t have a senior on the roster. Throughout the year, head coach Claudia Farias-Pinard said the Warriors continue to steadily improve.

With the new format, losers from each of Thursday’s four matches will play in the first two matches on Friday. Those are elimination matches.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and find him by searching Valley Sports Huddle on Facebook.