Ready to rumble

MAT-SU — If a Valley team doesn’t claim this weekend’s Northern Lights Conference regional volleyball title, the winner will have to go through the Valley to get there.

A strong contingent of Valley teams headline the tournament, which begins Thursday at Skyview High School.

Leading the pack is a dominant Wasilla squad that finished a perfect 14-0 against NLC teams this season and 15-1 overall. That lone blemish came Thursday to Grace Christian, a loss head coach Claudia Farias Pinard said was a “wake-up call” for her team.

After closing out the perfect conference schedule Saturday in a 40-minute, three-game match with Kenai, Pinard said she’s happy to go into the regional tournament as the north’s No. 1 seed, but that the Warriors can’t take for granted that a good record means automatic wins at regionals.

As the top seed and favorite, the Warriors will be the team every other school is gunning for, she said.

As dominating as the Warriors have been, “we’re not there yet,” Pinard said. “We still have improvements to make. … We need to play every single game as a championship game.”

Wasilla practices the same way, Pinard said, which leads to success on the floor. She’s a believer in the philosophy that a team that practices at a high level will perform in games at a higher level as well.

Two who have been driving the hard-hitting Warrior offense are hitters Sariah Tuisaula and Aryn Crane. Along with a strong front line, Wasilla also has befuddled some opponents during the regular season with an array of powerful jump serves.

“All the teams should be playing their best now,” Pinard said. “We don’t want to go to regionals thinking we are the favorite. Hopefully, it won’t affect us in a negative way if we prepare ourselves, … but we are playing our best volleyball now.”

Keeping that edge is the challenge, Pinard said, because it doesn’t do any good to be undefeated in the regular season and not advance to state.

“We have to focus on every single game in that (match),” she said. “It doesn’t make sense to play one game while everyone’s talking about another. We focus on the moment, not tomorrow.”

If Wasilla is going to claim a regional crown, it may have to go through Colony, which finished 5-5 in conference play. With the No. 3 seed in the northern division of the bracket, the Knights could face Wasilla in the semifinals if they can beat Soldotna in the first game of the tourney.

The challenge for the Knights will be playing up to their potential in every game of every match, said head coach Amy Carter.

With the top three teams from the regional advancing, “Obviously, we’re looking to go to state,” she said. “Regions is going to be tough, just like it is every year. Every team comes ready to play.”

Led by senior hitter Shellina Irwin, Colony has a relatively young team this year, which has created some consistency problems in some matches, Carter said. Early on, Colony dropped a few games they led but couldn’t put away, then upset a tough Juneau-Douglas team at home.

What’s impressed Carter has been the improvement the team makes each week. Sophomore setter Olivia Martin has stepped up to be a solid passer and sophomore 6-footers Mary Klapperich and Allison Leigh give the Knights a formidable front line with Irwin.

How good can Colony be?

“I have no idea,” Carter said. “They improve every week. What I see in practice is not necessarily what I see in games. That would be the transition we’ve been waiting for.”

Although Colony’s first game against Soldotna is against a higher seeded team (the Knights are No. 3 in the north division, SoHi No. 2 in the south) may seem like an upset in the making, it’s a winable game for Colony, the coach said.

“Us winning our first game would be considered an upset based on records,” she said. “We beat them previously, though.”

Like Wasilla and Colony, Palmer brings high expectations to regionals as the No. 2 seed in the north and a 7-3 regular season record against NLC teams.

For Palmer, the offense runs through junior setter Jenna Arlow, said head coach Steve Reynolds.

“We run a 5-1 offense with her setting all the time, so she’s been a key for us,” he said. “If you’re using one setter, she’s involved in every play and you gain consistency. She’s a great setter and has a great volleyball I.Q.”

Arlow’s work is usually realized by senior outside hitter Kendal Venzke, who Reynolds said has big-play potential like Wasilla’s Tuisaula and Colony’s Irwin.

“She’s capable of doing some pretty amazing things herself,” he said. “She’s arguably one of Palmer’s best female athletes.”

Palmer lost twice to Wasilla in the regular season and beating the Warriors would be a great accomplishment, Reynolds said. But the focus is on the tournament, not any one team.

“The goals are always the same,” he said. “High school volleyball is about consistent performances and getting everyone to play well on the same night. That’s where I always start. I don’t know if we’ve seen our potential yet this season, so I think we’re capable of more. I like what I see and people are performing. I like to see players coming up to a new level toward the end of the season.”

Asked which team in the regional bracket is the scariest right now, Reynolds had a few thoughts.

“Colony’s been coming along,” he said. “They have those two 6-footers and they’ve been coming along all season long. You have to keep an eye on them. And, of course, the obvious is Wasilla. They’ve been killing everybody. You don’t go 14-0 because you’re loafing everything at practice.”

Reynolds is also impressed by more than the Warriors’ heavy-hitters.

“Everybody talks about Sariah and Aryn, but Kayla Bell does a great job setting the ball,” he said. “She just keeps setting them the ball and you keep reading about Aryn and Sariah.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.