Wild final week sets up NLC tourney

WASILLA — It was a wild final week of the regular season in the Northern Lights Conference.

In six NLC matches during a six-day stretch, the team with the better conference record was tagged with a loss four times. The week started with Kenai upsetting Soldotna and Palmer upending Wasilla last Tuesday. The trend continued last Friday with Colony topping Palmer. On the final day of the regular season, Kodiak beat Kenai to earn its first NLC victory of the season.

The recent trend could make things interesting when the Northern Lights Conference Championships starts Thursday at Wasilla High School.

“Every team has their strengths. It’s whoever decides to play that day. You can’t discount anybody in our region,” Wasilla head coach Josie Cannon said recently.

Wasilla is the top seed in the tournament, finishing first in the NLC with a 9-1 mark. After that is four squads separated by two games. Soldotna scored the No. 2 seed with a 6-4 mark. Palmer and Colony finished tied at 5-5. Kenai is right there at 4-6. Kodiak is the No. 6 seed with the 1-9 mark, but enters the tourney as the defending NLC champion.

“I think the tournament is going to be exciting,” Colony head coach Amy Carter said via email earlier this week. “There is not a huge difference between the level of play of all of the teams in the conference, like there has been in some years. I am so impressed with how much all of the teams in the conference have improved.”

To add to the intrigue of the final week in the NLC, the conference’s three Valley teams — Palmer, Wasilla and Colony — were a combined 3-0 on their respective senior night.

“It was an interesting dynamic (last) week,” Cannon said.

The Warriors own the top seed and boast a senior-laden squad stocked full of veterans who helped Wasilla finish fourth in the 4A state tournament last year. But Cannon expects region tournament to be tough, and foresees a battle for not just the conference championship, but the three automatic bids to the state tournament.

“Of course we want to be one of the three teams, but it’s definitely up in the air,” Cannon said. “Every team has their strengths.”

Wasilla and Soldotna each earned a first-round bye with their top-2 seeds. Palmer is the No. 3 seed, after winning the tiebreaker with rival Colony, and plays sixth-seeded Kodiak Thursday at 3 p.m.

“I’ve told my team that Kodiak’s record will not reflect their performance at regions,” Palmer head coach Jayme DeHart said in an email earlier this week. “They will most certainly show up to play and be looking to win.”

Fourth-seeded Colony meets fifth-seeded Kenai earlier in the day at 1 p.m.

“Kenai is going to be a tough game to start with,” Carter said. “They played hard and consistent, and have given us a great game every time we have played them.”

Wasilla will see the Colony-Kenai winner Thursday at 6 p.m. Before she saw the bracket, Cannon said regardless of who Wasilla draws in its first match, she’s expecting to face a solid squad.

“Either way we’re going to have a tough matchup,” Cannon said

Soldotna faces the Palmer-Kodiak winner Thursday at 8 p.m.

The NLC uses a true double-elimination bracket. Winners of the late matches Thursday meet in the semifinals Friday at 5 p.m. The winner of that match earns the conference’s first bid to the state tournament. The championship match is slated for Saturday at 1 p.m. The if-necessary match will be played at 3 p.m. if needed.

Hawks host Southcentral tourney

A coin was used to separate Houston and Homer in the standings. But it’ll take far more than a coin to decide the outcome of the first-round match of the Southcentral Conference Championships.

Host Houston, the No. 5 seed in the conference, opens its tournament with a match against fourth-seeded Homer Friday at noon at Houston High School. The teams finished tied in the regular season conference standings, and a coin flip was used to determine the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds. Either way, the teams were destined for a opening-round matchup, and a battle for the chance to face undefeated Grace Christian, the No. 1 seed in the Southcentral Friday at 4 p.m. at Houston High.

Grace is the lone team to earn a first-round bye in the seven-team tournament. In the other first-round matchups, second-seeded Nikiski meets seventh-seeded Redington Friday at 10 a.m. Third-seeded Seward plays sixth-seeded Anchorage Christian Friday at 2 p.m.

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