Prep volleyball: Knights return to basics, beat Bears

WASILLA — With her team trailing late in the third game in a 1-1 match with the Kodiak Bears Saturday, Colony head coach Amy Carter called time out. In the huddle, Carter reminded her team to get back to its basic game plan, then sent her team back out on the court.

On the next play, Colony’s Desi Diselrod floated a perfect set to Hannah Curtis, who hammered home one of her game-high 20 kills.

A play later, another deft flick of Diselrod’s wrists set up Allie Grazulis for another monster kill.

Just like that, the Knights were back on track. The team didn’t trail again in the game, the second of three straight wins that closed out the team’s second four-game win over the Bears in as many days.

“We have the hitting power, if we can just get it up there,” Carter said after the match.

Kodiak won the first game, 26-24, before Colony posted wins of 25-10, 25-21 and 25-17 in the team’s final Northern Lights Conference match of the season. Combined with a 25-18, 25-16, 22-25, 25-7 win Friday, the Knigths finished the conference season with a 9-1 record in the NLC, good enough to lock up a top seed at the conference tournament in two weeks.

The key to Colony’s offensive game is the spiking ability of big hitters Curtis, Grazulis and Kristen Coan. Grazuils finished the match with nine kills, while Coan had six.

And Diselrod was most often the one delivering the sets, picking up 20 assists — many coming from less than ideal angles.

“Almost every game she makes our passers look even better than they are,” Carter said.

When Diselrod wasn’t controlling the tempo, Siobhan Johansen likely was, as the Knights overwhelmed the Bears with their steady, disciplined play.

“They spread the ball around and that’s really tough to defend,” Kodiak coach Rick Carman said.

Colony also kept Kodiak on the defensive with some nifty serving, including seven aces by Curtis and three from Diselrod. Combined with good passing and a consistent serve, the Knights were able to reel off several big runs over the final three games.

The Knights finished the third game on a 6-1 run, and had runs of 5-1 and 5-0 during the decisive fourth game.

Carter said the team has spent countless hours in practice honing its game, and has paid particular attention to passing and serving in recent days.

“We’ve been working on both of those things a lot,” she said.

But while the Knights will go into the Conference tournament as the team to beat, Carter said she still believes the team has things to work on, and pointed to Saturday’s opening-game loss as proof.

“We’ve got a lot of stuff to work on,” Carter said. “I thing this team still has a long ways to

go.”