Prep volleyball: Warriors outlast Moose

PALMER — During the second and fourth sets of a match at rival Palmer, Wasilla head coach Josie Cannon saw her team trail by large margins early. At those points, Cannon wasn’t focused on those individual battles.

Instead, she thought big picture.

Not the battle, but the war.

“I don’t care what happens in this set, but get the momentum back,” Cannon said of the message to her squad.

The Warriors did get the momentum back, and outlasted the Moose during a 3-2 (25-23, 22-25, 25-17, 25-19, 15-13) Northern Lights Conference victory over Palmer Tuesday night at Palmer High School.

“In the second and fourth sets, down by a lot, we were able to regain momentum going into the next one,” Cannon said.

Wasilla trailed 19-9 during the second set. Palmer prevailed, but Wasilla ended the match on a 13-6 run. In the fourth, the Warriors were down 9-2, but once again, kept it close and carried some momentum into the decisive fifth game.

Neither team led by more than three points during the fifth game. Aleks Kvalheim posted consecutive kills to give Wasilla an 11-9 lead. Kvalheim pushed the ball over to break a 9-9 tie, and tucked a strike inside the back line to give the Warriors the 11-9 lead. Palmer used kills by Deana McNutt and Hannah Decker, and a Mystery Showalter service ace to tie the score at 13. Wasilla’s Leanna Malak broke the tie with a kill, and Palmer pushed a ball just beyond the side line to clinch the fifth game and match for the Warriors.

“Palmer’s tough, very strong defensively. They always are,” Cannon said. “We were able to come out on top. We had less mistakes than Palmer did. But we made way too many mistakes.”

Cannon said mistakes will be the difference when playing a team the caliber of Palmer.

“That ball is consistently coming back. They’re expecting to you make those mistakes,” Cannon said. “Make less mistakes.”

Wasilla, which also beat Colony 3-1 last week, improved to 3-1 in Northern Lights Conference play. The Warriors travel to Kodiak this weekend for a pair.

Kvalheim finished with 12 kills to lead Wasilla. Cheyenne Green added 10. Kaitlyn Cook had a team-high 14 digs. Delaney Breshears, Malak and Green had 13 digs each. Tristan Merchant had five aces and a dozen digs. Cook also had a match-high 43 assists.

Palmer dropped to 1-3 in the NLC. Showalter led Palmer with 23 digs in the loss. Gina Bodner added 11. Kristen Beames earned a team-high 13 kills. Kelsey Giese added 10 and Sofia Cordero chipped in eight.

Maya Dinwiddle had 30 assists.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.