Prep volleyball: Palmer handed first loss of season

Oct. 22, 2006

By Jeremiah Bartz/ Frontiersman

PALMER - The Skyview Panthers erased Palmer's hopes of a perfect regular season Saturday.

In a battle between a pair of undefeated Northern Lights Conference squads, the Panthers earned a 3-1 (25-22, 25-23, 23-25, 25-23) win over the Moose volleyball squad at Palmer High School.

On the positive side, a little pressure may be off the shoulders of the Palmer High School volleyball team.

&#8220Trying to maintain an undefeated season, an error-free record, there's a lot of pressure,” Palmer head coach Steve Reynolds said.

Reynolds said the Moose did not necessarily play the toughest opponent they had seen all season, but they also did not play their best volleyball of the season.

&#8220They definitely minimized their unforced errors,” Reynolds said. &#8220We had a lot of serving errors, and some communication breakdowns.”

Rather than playing poorly and escaping with a win, Reynolds said there are now opportunities to learn from their loss.

While the Moose struggled, Reynolds said the Panthers did what they needed to do to win, and he credited the play of Skyview libero Chelsie Martin.

&#8220They played good defense and passed pretty well,” Reynolds said. &#8220They ran a pretty predictable offense, but ran it smoothly.”

Few points separated the two division leading teams for the most part. Skyview did open the match with a 7-0 run in the first game, but the Moose were able to claw their way back into the action.

&#8220We fought the whole time,” Reynolds said. &#8220Even when it was pretty bleak.”

Junior Nicole Kenney led the Moose with 11 kills, while senior Stephanie Houser added 10.

The North Division leading Moose dropped to 13-1 overall and 7-1 in NLC play, while Skyview, the leaders of the South, stayed perfect at 13-0 and 8-0.

Palmer 3, Homer 1

The Palmer Moose scored a 3-1 (22-25, 25-14, 25-23, 25-20) win over the Homer Mariners at PHS on Friday.

Houser posted a match-high 15 kills, while Kenney added 13.

Kenney also recorded seven digs and four aces, both team bests.

Colony splits

The Colony Knights split a pair of weekend matches at Colony High School.

On Saturday, the Knights earned a 3-1 ( 23-25, 25-17, 25-9, 25-16) win over Homer.

On Friday, Colony suffered a 3-1 (16-25, 25-16, 16-25, 22-25) loss to Skyview.

Hannah Curtis led the Knights with 15 kills and five blocks. Desi Diselrod posted 26 assists and six digs.

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