Su Valley falls during first day of 2A volleyball tourney

ANCHORAGE —The Susitna Valley Rams hit the court as the defending 2A state champions. But Dillingham prevented the Rams from making another move on the winner’s side of the bracket.

Dillingham won three straight sets to knock off Su Valley 3-1 (22-25, 26-24, 25-23, 25-18) Thursday at Dimond High School.

Su Valley will continue play against either Kenny Lake or Craig today at 2:15 p.m. in consolation action. Results of the Kenny Lake/Craig match were not available prior to press time.

Su Valley entered the the tournament as the No. 2 seed from the Borealis Conference. Unalaska edged Su Valley in five games to win the Borealis title during the conference tournament last week at Birchwood Christian School. The Rams bounced back to beat Ninilchik 3-0 to earn its state tournament berth.

Sarena Drover and Ruby Matthews were named All-Borealis Conference, and all-tournament after the championships. Deborah Johnston was the team’s academic star, with her 4.0 grade point average.

The Rams graduated seven seniors from the team that won the 2A state title last year. This year, the Rams only have one senior and three juniors on the roster. Despite the youth, Su Valley finished 12-2 in the regular season. The Rams won the Lumen Dig Pink Spiketacular, and were the runners-up at the Ninilchik Spikefest and Tri-Valley Slamma Jamma.