State volleyball: Wolverines sweep Warriors out of winner’s bracket

WASILLA — Throughout the postseason, Wasilla head coach Claudia Farias-Pinard has said that if her Warriors play to their potential, they can beat anyone in the state.

On Thursday, Farias-Pinard didn’t see her squad play to its potential.

South Anchorage scored a 3-0 (25-6, 25-20, 25-18) win over the Warriors during the ASAA/First National Bank 4A State Volleyball Championships at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center in Wasilla.

“Unfortunately, I think Valley teams get shy against some of the Anchorage teams,” Farias-Pinard said.

Farias-Pinard saw a different Wasilla team Thursday, not the same team that rolled through the month of October and played to a third-place finish at the Northern Lights Conference Championships last month.

“We didn’t play to our standard,” she said. “They were shy. They didn’t find the chemistry, the way we have been lately.”

South played to a quick 25-6 win in Game 1 and led big in the second set. The Wolverines worked to a 9-1 advantage, and led 16-8 midway through the second game.

The Warriors rallied, cutting South’s lead to as little as three points with a Kayla Binggeli kill. That point sliced South’s advantage to 21-18, but the Wolverines were able to close out the game.

Wasilla’s best play came in the third. Wasilla jumped to a 5-2 lead, scoring consecutive points on a Jolee Fife kill and South hitting error. Wasilla took an 11-9 lead with a Binggeli service ace and a 12-10 advantage with a Sariah Tuisaula kill, but couldn’t grab a significant lead over South Anchorage.

“Even when we played point-to-point with South, we were still not playing up to our standards,” Farias-Pinard said. “It was really sad we didn’t play to our potential.”

Farias-Pinard said the Warriors need to put together the mental and physical aspects of the sport.

“The physical is one part, the mental is the other half,” Farias-Pinard said.

Haley Tayler led the Warriors with a team-high 10 kills and 13 kills in the match. Tuisaula added eight kills and a team-best 16 digs. Binggeli chipped in a dozen digs and two aces in the loss.

Wasilla now faces Chugiak today at 10:45 a.m. in consolation action. The Mustangs dropped a match to Palmer 3-1 in the late quarterfinal match Thursday.

In other first-round action, Dimond swept Juneau-Douglas 3-0 and West Valley beat Kodiak 3-1.

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