Breaking News : Palmer spikes Warriors to win region title - Frontiersman

Breaking News : Palmer spikes Warriors to win region title - Frontiersman

By JEREMIAH BARTZ
Frontiersman
Published on Saturday, November 6, 2010 11:27 PM AKDT

SOLDOTNA — When the Palmer Moose met the Wasilla Warriors for the final time during the regular season, Wasilla made quick work of the Moose, cruising past their rival during a quick, 55-minute match on Palmer’s home court.

That, coupled with Wasilla’s dominance of the Northern Lights Conference this season, Palmer head coach Steve Reynolds admittedly did not know what to think as he led his squad onto the court to play Wasilla in the conference title match Saturday evening.

But powered by a newfound sense of confidence, Reynolds’ Moose prevailed. Palmer scored a 3-1 (26-24, 25-27, 25-22, 25-22) win Saturday over the previously undefeated Warriors during the title match of the Northern Lights Conference Championships volleyball tournament at Skyview High School in Soldotna.

“If I’m being honest, I wasn’t sure (about the match),” Reynolds said by cell phone Saturday evening as his squad was returning to the Valley in the team bus. “We had just lost to them two times during the regular season, and the last time they killed us. But we gained confidence down here.”

That confidence, Reynolds said, skyrocketed during his team’s 3-1 upset win over host Skyview in the NLC semifinals on Friday.

“That game against Skyview, that was a great confidence booster,” Reynolds said. “That got us through tonight.”

Senior Kendal Venzke, who was named first-team All-Northern Lights Conference after the match, led the team with 18 kills to help Palmer win its second straight NLC crown. Both Palmer and Wasilla earned automatic berths to next week’s state tournament with their appearance in the conference final. Colony made it a clean sweep for the Valley, clinching its postseason bid with a 3-0 sweep of Soldotna during the third-place match Saturday afternoon.

For the Moose, the road to their second straight conference championship was eerily similar to their journey to the 2009 crown. Like last season, the Moose started the season a little bit slow, but quietly progressed and eventually stunned the top seed for the title.

“We did struggle some early on. We had some weird things happen, some injuries,” Reynolds said. “But it came together. Apparently, a slow start is not a problem.”

Reynolds said things began to click for his team during the Dimond/Service Tournament in Anchorage last month. Up to that point, the Moose coaching staff had been tinkering with starting lineups. But during that tourney, they found a combination that worked. Reynolds said the Moose used so many different sets of starters, once they did find that right group, it turned into somewhat of an inside joke.

“We were like, hey we’ve used that one before,” Reynolds said with a laugh.

But more important than that, he said, was the progression.

“The big thing was people were still improving right up to the end,” Reynolds said.

The players saw that confidence, too.

“I think we all started to realize that if we started working hard, working more as a team, no one could stop us,” hitter Rebecca Stella said by cell phone from the team bus Saturday.

Wasilla junior Sariah Tuisaula was named the most valuable player of the NLC North Division after the final match. Wasilla’s Aryn Crane, Palmer’s Jenna Arlow and Colony’s Shellina Irwin joined Venzke on the NLC first team. Wasilla’s Claudia Farias Pinard was named the NLC Coach of the Year.

Wasilla’s Kayla Bell and Haley Taylor, and Palmer’s Morgan Morfe were named to the second team.