Prep volleyball: Underdog Warriors upset Soldotna in NLC tourney

PALMER — With only two wins in Northern Lights Conference play, the Wasilla volleyball squad didn’t have much of a chance to celebrate during the regular season.

But the Warriors did on Thursday.

Wasilla scored a 3-1 (23-25, 25-23, 25-23, 25-23) upset victory over the Soldotna Stars during the first round of the 2007 NLC Volleyball Championships at Palmer High School.

The Warriors entered the tournament as the bottom seed from the NLC’s Northern Division matched against the Stars, the top team from the South.

Turns out the role of underdog works for the Warriors.

“When we come out and win like that, definitely,” Wasilla senior co-captain Ashlen Welch said after the match.

In underdog fashion, the Warriors not only came back after losing the first game of the four-game match, but the Warriors also erased late deficits in each of the three games they won.

The Warriors were down 20-18 in the second game, 23-18 in the third and 21-17 in the fourth.

And as the underdogs, Welch said the Warriors had to just go for it.

“We got nothing to lose, so let’s go down swinging,” Welch said.

Throughout the season, the Warriors felt they had what they needed to be successful, but for whatever reason Wasilla was not able to put it together.

“We know we have the talent. We’ve been hearing that all season,” Welch said. “Normally we do the up and down roller coaster thing, but this time we kept the intensity up the entire time.”

Anna Simmons, the first-year head coach of the Warriors, said the Warriors have been on the verge of showing their potential.

“All year we’ve been struggling with being ahead and having a hard time finishing,” Simmons said. “It’s something we’ve been working hard on.”

Wasilla used a combination of timely hitting, stellar serving and tough defense to hand the Stars just their fourth NLC loss of the season.

Welch posted 13 kills, 19 digs and six aces for the Warriors. Junior Jenna Johnson recorded a match-high 16 kills and 23 digs.

Junior Sammy Becker added eight kills.

Senior Kahle Ess registered a season-high 26 assists. And Wasilla’s other senior setter, Stephanie Bair chipped in four kills.

Simmons said she saw her the best performance of the season in several categories, by both individuals — such as Ess and Becker — and her team. Wasilla’s 16 service aces is a season high.

But what stood out most was Wasilla’s ability to come from behind.

In the third game, Wasilla used a 7-0 run to tie the score the 25-23 win.

Welch, who was named the player of the match following the win, recorded two of her match-high six aces during the run.

In the decisive fourth game, Wasilla used a 4-1 run to tie the game at 21-21.

Following a Soldotna service error and a hitting error by the Stars, Bair slipped a shot between two Stars to cut the score to 21-20 and Johnson knocked a hard hit over the net to tie the score at 21-21.

Wasilla now moves into the semifinal to face the Palmer Moose, who notched a 3-0 win over Skyview. The match is slated to start at 7 p.m. today at PHS.

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