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PALMER — The Wasilla Warriors are 8-0 in Northern Lights Conference play, and own the top seed in the NLC Championships, which start Thursday at Colony High. But Wasilla head coach Katie Oxspring said the Warriors are not focused on records.
“We have the best record going into regions, but that means absolutely nothing,” Oxspring said after a win over Colony Oct. 26. “Regions is literally up for grabs for the team that wants it the most.”
Soldotna (5-3), Palmer (3-5), Kodiak (2-6) and Colony (2-6) follow the Warriors in the five-team NLC. Oxspring said the records don’t indicate the parity in the conference.
“All of the teams are good,” Oxspring said.
Wasilla capped its undefeated regular season in conference with a 3-2 win over Colony.
“We have a lot of matches that have gone to five sets like this,” Oxspring said.
Palmer, which jumped into the third seed during the final weekend of the regular season, played in four straight five-set matches to end the NLC regular season. The Moose edged Colony 3-2 two weeks ago, fell to Wasilla 3-2 last week and beat Kodiak 3-2 twice over the weekend.
“(We’re) all going give against each other,” Colony head coach Steve Reynolds said.
Colony is the two-time defending NLC champ. Reynolds, in his first season as Knights head coach, said each of the five teams in the conference are capable of winning it all.
“It’s very close. It makes it exciting,” Reynolds said.
The fifth-seeded Knights open the tournament, hosting fourth-seeded Kodiak Thursday at 1 p.m. Second-seeded Soldotna follows against third-seeded Palmer at 3 p.m. The winner of the Colony-Kodiak match plays top-seeded Wasilla Thursday at 5 p.m.
The loser of the Colony-Kodiak match plays the loser of the Palmer-SoHi match at 7 p.m., in an elimination match.
The double-elimination tournament continues Friday and Saturday. The top three teams in the tourney advance to the ASAA/First National Bank Division I State Volleyball Championships in Anchorage.
Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.
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