Parity expected in NLC volleyball tourney

PALMER — The final two matches of the regular season were like a pair of roller-coaster rides for the Wasilla Warriors. Wasilla played some of its better volleyball of the season, but fell just short against Palmer and Colony.

Both matches were as close as its gets. Wasilla fell 15-13 in the decisive fifth game of each.

This week, the Warriors will get another crack at one, or maybe even both of their Valley rivals, during the Northern Lights Conference Volleyball Championships at Palmer High School. Wasilla opens NLC tournament play against Colony in the first round, Thursday at 1 p.m. at PHS.

"I'm excited, redemption," Wasilla head coach Josie Cannon said when asked her team's first-round pairing with the Knights.

Wasilla dropped to 4-6 in NLC play with the 3-2 (23-25, 25-20, 19-25, 25-18, 13-15) loss to the Knights last Thursday at WHS.

"It was a very close game, a very good fight," Cannon said. "There are some things we need to adjust before our next matchup. I'm very confident in my girls' ability to put this together."

Colony is the No. 4 seed in the tournament. The Knights and Soldotna both finished 5-5 in NLC play. Tournament officials needed a series of four tiebreakers to separate the Knights and Stars. The teams split two regular-season matches. Colony and Soldotna didn't meet in an official best-of-5 match outside conference play this season, and there were no common 4A opponents. The tiebreaker used was records against teams with higher seeds in the NLC tournament. SoHi finished 1-1 against both top-seeded Palmer and second-seeded Kodiak. Colony was a combined 0-4 against the top 2 seeds.

SoHI was awarded the No. 3 seed with the tiebreaker and will open against rival Kenai (1-9) Thursday at 3 p.m.

The Wasilla-Colony winner moves forward to play Palmer Thursday at 6 p.m. The SoHi-Kenai winner will play Kodiak, the No. 2 seed, Thursday at 8.

By earning a top-2 seed Palmer (8-2) and Kodiak (7-3) earned first-round byes in the double-elimination tourney.

Palmer head coach Steve Reynolds said, regardless of who Palmer sees in its first match of the tourney, the Moose are expecting a tough team.

"I think the region is pretty even this year," Reynolds said. "Whatever side of the bracket, you're going to have tough matches."

Wasilla's last two matches and Palmer's last three matches in NLC play show the conference's parity this year. Wasilla saw its final two matches in the regular season decided by a 15-13 score in Game 5. Palmer had two of its final three matches decided by a 15-13 margin in the fifth game. In addition to the 3-2 (25-17, 23-25, 25-19, 23-25, 15-13) win over Wasilla last week, the Moose split a pair of 3-2 matches with the Kodiak Bears in Kodiak.

Last Friday, the Bears forced a tie at the top of the NLC standings with a 3-2 (26-24, 18-25, 18-25, 25-18, 15-10) win over the Moose. Both teams were tied at 7-2 in the standings heading into the final day of the regular season. Palmer clinched the tournament's No. 1 seed with a 3-2 (22-25, 25-20, 24-26, 25-16, 15-13) win.

"We're getting lots of experience," Reynolds joked about the abundance of the five-set matches. "It's been good. The matches have been good and close. Both (the Kodiak) matches were very close, right down to the wire. We managed to get one, they got one. I think both matches were fairly even, two pretty evenly-matched teams battling it out. The Wasilla match was very similar."

The tournament uses a double-elimination format. The teams that drop the Thursday afternoon first-round matches (Colony vs. Wasilla and Soldotna vs. Kenai) will drop into the loser's bracket, and play the losers of Thursday evenings quarterfinal matches. Friday at 11 a.m., the Soldotna/Kenai loser will play the loser of Palmer's quarterfinal match against either Colony or Wasilla. Also, Friday at 1 p.m., the Colony/Wasilla loser will play the loser of Kodiak's quarterfinal match against either Kenai or SoHi.

Championship semifinals are set for Friday at 5 p.m. The championship match is Saturday at 1 p.m. A match will follow at 3 p.m. if necessary.