Volleyball: Knights sweep home finale

Jeremiah Bartz/Frontiersman

PALMER — When the Colony Knights and West Anchorage Eagles stepped onto the court Friday evening, the two teams stood at virtually the opposite ends of the volleyball spectrum.

The Eagles brought a 1-12 overall record to the Colony High School gym, while the Knights sported a significantly different 11-2 mark.

And while the team with the better record won — Colony recorded a 3-0 (25-21, 25-19, 25-19) victory — the Eagles made sure the night didn’t include an effortless sweep for the Knights.

“They played well; they’ve got some good hitters,” Colony head coach Amy Carter said of the Knights’ counterpart. “We had a hard time getting going.”

Colony found itself in basically the same position each of the three games — clinging to a slim lead.

But in each game, Colony did the same thing.

The Knights shook off a little rust, and used small runs to keep West from victory.

In the first game, not more than a point separated the two clubs before senior Hannah Curtis scored an ace to spark a four-point run. Tied 16-16, Curtis sent a hard serve over the net that could not be returned to give the Knights the 17-16 lead. After two unforced West errors, senior Kristen Coan popped a short hit over the net to give the Knights the 20-17 advantage.

Kara Johnson followed a Sierra Hodgson kill with an ace to close the first game.

Colony is led by a group of three talented seniors — Curtis, Coan and setter Desi Diselrod — but on Friday, the Knights showed they were not just three players deep.

Johnson and Hodgson both stood out.

Johnson was moved to middle blocker to replace starter Allie Grazulis, who missed the game due to family reasons, Carter said.

“That was only her second time playing middle at the varsity level,” Carter said. “She did a good job.”

Hodgson posted five kills for the Knights, with each coming in timely fashion.

“Sierra really stepped up today,” Carter said.

Curtis led the Knights with 15 kills, while Coan added 12.

Curtis and Coan combined for 15 digs.

West used a 9-1 run midway through the third game to try to prevent the Knights from scoring the sweep. Colony had built a hefty 12-4 lead in the game before the Eagles’ run.

Coan slipped a hard shot between a pair of West players to help bring the momentum back the Knights’ way.

Hodgson followed with a quick kill, and Johnson scored a big block to push Colony’s lead back to five points.

Colony now prepares for the 2007 Northern Lights Conference Volleyball Championships, which are set to start Thursday at 1 p.m. at Palmer High School.

The Knights finished the regular season 9-1 in conference play, and own the top seed from the NLC’s Northern Division. Despite an almost perfect record in conference play this year, Carter knows it will not be easy for the Knights to score their third-straight conference title.

“We’ve still got some work to do,” Carter said.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.