Warriors rally to top Knights

PALMER — The Wasilla Warriors needed this one.

After suffering tough losses to region rivals earlier in the season, Wasilla scored a key Northern Lights Conference victory Tuesday night, outlasting Colony 3-2 (25-23, 22-25, 15-25, 30-28, 15-10) at Colony High School.

“I really hope this is a new beginning for Wasilla,” Warriors head coach Claudia Fonseca Farias said after her team’s win.

Wasilla, which was swept by Colony at Wasilla High in September, trailed by a set heading into the fourth game of the match. But the Warriors used a key 30-28 victory in Game 4 to rally to the win.

Wasilla served for game point three times during the back-and-forth fourth set before using a Colony attacking error to take the 30-28 win.

“They really wanted it,” Fonseca Farias said. “It was their goal. They fought for it and they got it.”

The rivals served for game point a combined six times during the set.

Middle hitter Jolee Fife collected two of her team-high 12 kills during the final minutes of Game 4 to help the Warriors win.

Neither team led by more than two points for most of the game. Wasilla took the biggest lead of the fourth game, an 18-14 advantage, on a Colony hitting error, but junior Mary Klapperich recorded three kills during a six-point span to help Colony tie the score at 20.

Junior Allison Leigh recorded a kill and a block on consecutive points to give the Knights the 22-20 lead, marking the last time Colony would lead by more than a point in the game.

Leigh tipped the ball over the net for another kill to give the Knights the 24-23 advantage and the first opportunity to serve for game point. Haley Taylor smacked a kill to tie the score at 24.

A Fife kill helped the Warriors serve for game point, with the 25-24 advantage. Leigh forced the tie when the junior forced a hard hit off the Warriors block.

Another Fife kill gave the Warriors the lead at 26-25, but once again the teams found themselves tied after Klapperich found a hole in the back corner. Klapperich knocked another hit off the Wasilla block to give the Knights the 27-26 lead, but a serving error tied the score once again.

Wasilla tied the score for the final time when setter Kayla Binggeli pushed the ball over the net into open space to knot the score at 28.

“It was the right spot at the right time,” Fonseca Farias said. “Sometimes when you don’t expect it, it’s really good.”

Consecutive Colony hitting errors gave Wasilla the 30-28 win.

“We struggled a little with hitting,” Colony head coach Amy Carter said.

Wasilla used a late 5-0 run to seal the victory in the fifth game.

Fife led the Warriors with a dozen kills in the win. Taylor Steiner added nine kills and Haley Taylor chipped in eight.

Haley Taylor also collected a team-high 27 digs in the match. Leah Taylor added 16 digs and Binggeli had nine digs and four aces.

Leight led Colony with a match-high 20 kills. Klapperich added 15 kills, 18 digs and eight blocks. Maryann Zmuda finished with 34 assists and 13 digs.

Dimond 3, Palmer 0

ANCHORAGE — The Dimond Lynx scored a 3-0 (25-13, 25-17, 25-22) win over Palmer in Anchorage on Wednesday.

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