The Palmer Moose strike again Frontiersman staff

ANCHORAGE - First it was the Service High Cougars that went down at the hands of the Palmer Moose earlier this month at West High's annual Spiketacular.

And on Saturday, the Moose sent the Lathrop Malemutes from Fairbanks home without championship hardware as the runner up at the Service-Dimond Invitational meet.

The Moose maintain a perfect 2-0 tournament record this year.

The Moose's only flaw in major tournament play this year was a pool-play loss to Service at West High's tourney.

Since then, Palmer's tournament play has been flawless and so is their Region III record of 9-0. In regular season play, the Moose are 15-1 with their only loss coming against the Mustangs at Chugiak earlier this month.

The Moose found themselves in an unfamiliar position in the title game against Lathrop after dropping the first game 15-7, but came from behind by winning the next three games, 15-6, 15-13, 15-3 to take top honors at the 24-team meet in Anchorage.

Once again, Palmer senior Lisa Thomas, who had opposing teams wondering when she is going to graduate, anchored an impressive offensive attack with 28 kills in the tournament's championship game against the Malamutes.

Tara Hillis continued her setting supremacy with 47 assists.

The Cougars come to Palmer tomorrow and will try to avenge an earlier tournament loss to the Moose.

The game starts at 6:30.

Photo: Lisa Thomas fakes out two Ketchikan defenders by smashing a kill to the other side of the net Friday.

Photo by GENE JANSEN/Frontiersman.