Prep volleyball: Moose keep swinging, grab third in state

Nov. 12, 2006

By Jeremiah Bartz/ Frontiersman

ANCHORAGE - The Palmer High School volleyball squad missed out on its opportunity to play for a state title. But the Moose were able to end the season with a win.

The Moose rebounded from a loss to East Anchorage in the semifinals, and earned a 3-1 (25-16, 24-26, 25-20, 25-19) win over Chugiak in the third-place match of the ASAA First National Bank 4A State Volleyball Championships at West Anchorage High School on Saturday.

If anything, the win eased some of the pain caused by East's 3-0 win over the Moose in the semifinals.

&#8220It's better. If we would have lost again, it would be even more devastating,” Palmer senior Stephanie Houser said. &#8220(We) played really tough for our last game. We played with all we had. It feels good.”

The third-place finish was the third in the last seven years for Palmer head coach Steve Reynolds.

&#8220That's the nice thing about the third-place game. You get to win third,” Reynolds said, emphasizing the word win. &#8220Although I'd love to be second or first sometime.”

Palmer won easily in the first game, survived a tough loss in the second game and overcame Chugiak's wicked serving in the win.

&#8220We cruised pretty well in that first game,” Reynolds said. &#8220I knew Chugiak had do have done something to get to this point. I didn't think we were going to just cruise through the match in three.”

Palmer was two points away from taking the two-game lead. With the Moose holding a 23-19 lead, Chugiak used a 7-1 run to tie the match at 1-1.

Chugiak carried that momentum into the third game and built a 7-3 lead. But in typical Palmer fashion, the Moose were able to climb out of a hole. Midway through the game junior Sarah Svedin posted consecutive service aces to tie the game at 15-15. Junior Nicole Kenney added another ace to tie the game again at 17-17, and Houser followed with a kill off a tip to give the Moose their first lead of the game.

Kenney helped the Moose notch the win in the game with three-straight kills.

The Mustangs enjoyed their most success on the serve, generating many of their points with the ace.

&#8220They served really well,” Reynolds said. &#8220That was the thing we had the most trouble with.”

Houser said Palmer had not seen a team serve the way Chugiak did on Saturday.

&#8220We aren't used to very deep serves,” Houser said. &#8220Most teams we play in our region serve short on us. So we play shorter.”

The long hard serves forced Palmer to make less than perfect passes on many occasions.

&#8220They serve a lot of deep, hard serves,” Reynolds said. &#8220We'd shank a pass, or a pass would be pretty unplayable, and we'd be scrambling to put it over the net. It's hard to win like that, when there's no sting in your attack.”

But when Palmer did have the sting in their attack, the Moose hitters were down right dominant. Houser posted 17 kills, a number Reynolds believes is a season high for the Northern Lights Conference player of the year. Dickerson added eight kills, and Kenney was active as ever on the defensive end, recording a team-high 20 digs.

In consolation action, Juneau-Douglas defeated Colony 3-1 (24-26, 25-23, 25-14, 25-8) on Friday morning.

Palmer opened with a first-round win over West Valley on Thursday, while Colony suffered a loss to South Anchorage.

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