Region III title up for grabs

The Region III volleyball tournament gets started Thursday at Colony High School, and about the only thing that can be counted on is that the Knights will be the team to beat.

Colony finished the regular season with a pair of victories last weekend. On Friday, the Knights posted a 25-13, 25-9, 25-17 home victory over Soldotna, and followed it up with a victory over Kenai Saturday to close the regular season with a 9-1 conference record.

On Halloween night, Soldotna found out that the most scary thing was the Colony offense, which clicked with precision all night.

Across the Valley, the Palmer Moose finished their regular season with a 25-23, 25-13, 251-12 victory over the Stars on Saturday. Jessie Macnicki paced the Moose with 16 kills. Karaline Naegele chipped in with six kills, and Meagan Meekin served up six aces to lead the Moose.

The victory came on the heels of a 25-16, 25-11, 25-18 sweep of Kenai the night before.

Jaymie Irvine had 24 assists and 14 digs to help the Moose in the victory.

The Warriors defeated Bartlett on Friday in nonconference action to finish their regular season as well.

When the Region III tournament begins at Colony High School, the Knights will have the top seed. As of press time Monday morning, however, the second seed was still in the air.

"We know Kodiak and Palmer are tied, so that's coming down to a coin toss," said Mike Boyd, the Colony athletic director.

The coin toss was to be held after the Frontiersman went to press.

Regardless of the coin toss result, the tournament is clearly up for grabs, as Region III has proven to be unpredictable this volleyball season.

Colony's only loss of the Region III season came to the Moose, a team that has shown it can beat just about anybody this season. With such a wide-open tournament, there could be some surprises on the court this weekend.

Teams are playing for a chance to participate in the state tournament, which begins next Thursday in Anchorage at West High School. The top three teams in the Region III tournament are given berths in the state tournament field.

Region II tournament play continues through Saturday, with the championship game held Saturday night at Colony High School.