Warriors cruise past Bears

WASILLA — Despite falling behind quickly in the first two games Friday night, the Kodiak Bears had an opportunity to try to claw its way back into the match. The Bears used a short run to tie the score at 10 in the third game.

But it didn’t take long for the Wasilla Warriors to kill any hope of a Kodiak rally.

Following a long volley, which included a great save and dig by the Kodiak defense, Wasilla junior Sylvia Tuisaula pushed the ball into an open space in the Bears side. Tuisaula’s point sparked a 15-5 run that cemented Wasilla’s 3-0 (25-20, 25-14, 25-15) win over Kodiak at Wasilla High School.

“It was a momentum shift,” Wasilla head coach Josie Cannon said of the point. “We’ve got a lot of strong athletes. When we get into tight battles, quickness and explosion helps us win those rallies.”

Wasilla served long strings of points to build, basically, an insurmountable lead in Game 2. Wasilla served the first five points of the game to take the 5-0 lead, and the Warriors raced to a 15-3 advantage.

“We’re doing a better job of capitalizing on more serves in a row. Our serving is a little more consistent and aggressive,” Cannon said. “In all the games we were able to go on strong runs. The serving is really coming along.”

Cannon said a change to the team’s defensive rotation has also helped the Warriors. Wasilla moved Courtney Anthony to libero, Cate Currier to outside defense and Merit Paramo to right side defense.

“That has paid off big rewards for us,” Cannon said. “When those three are there together, it’s a very strong defensive rotation for us.”

Amber Sizemore led the Warriors with 19 kills in the win. Courtney Anthony supplied a team-high 19 digs and five aces. Peyton Mobley added 30 assists and three aces.

Tracy Gatter finished with 12 assists and nine digs for Kodiak. Isabelle Riina had six digs and four aces. Kalameli Matautia collected five kills and Richelle Walker finished with four kills.

Kodiak did rebound Saturday, posting the 3-0 sweep of the Warriors.

Wasilla is now 4-4 in Northern Lights Conference. Kodiak is in second place in the conference with a 6-2 mark.

Palmer currently leads the NLC with a 6-1 mark. The Bears host the Moose Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 at Kodiak High. Wasilla has two conference games left. The Warriors are at Palmer Oct. 28 and host Colony Oct. 31. The Warriors (4-4) are just ahead of both Colony (4-5) and Soldotna (4-5) in the NLC standings.

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