The Soldotna volleyball team emerged the biggest winners Saturday at the Dimond-Service tournament at Service High School with a seventh-place finish in the gold championship bracket.
Behind the Stars, the peninsula was well represented. Nikiski tied for third in the silver championship bracket, while Homer finished second in the silver consolation bracket. In the bronze bracket, Kenai Central won the championship.
Soldotna snapped up the top seed from pool C on Friday with a 6-2 record, putting the Stars in the tournament’s gold bracket. From there, SoHi began Saturday’s bracket play with a 2-1 loss to Palmer, with scores of 25-17, 16-25 and 4-15. That dropped SoHi into a loser-out contest with Colony, which the Stars lost 2-1 with game scores of 19-25, 25-19 and 11-15.
The Dimond Lynx ended up winning the gold championship with a 2-1 win over Wasilla in the final.
Nikiski started its Saturday run in the silver championship bracket with a 2-1 win over North Pole with scores of 25-22, 21-25 and 15-12. The Bulldogs then lost to West Valley in the semifinals 2-1 with scores of 25-15, 24-26 and 5-15.
Homer’s Saturday run in the silver bracket began with a 2-1 loss to Thunder Mountain with scores of 17-25, 25-19 and 10-15. That dropped the Mariners into a consolation bracket, where they beat North Pole 2-0 with scores of 25-19 and 25-18, but then lost to West in the consolation final 2-0 with scores of 25-14 and 25-18.
Kenai’s run to the bronze title began with a 2-0 win over Juneau with scores of 25-16 and 25-23, and the Kardinals took the crown with a 2-0 win over Grace Christian with scores of 25-16 and 25-17.
Peninsula teams began play Friday with eight total games of pool play.
Nikiski took fourth in pool D with a 2-6 record, while Homer went 3-5 in pool B. The results put both the Bulldogs and Mariners in the tournament’s silver bracket. Kenai went 2-6 Friday to finish fifth in pool C, placing the Kardinals in the tournament’s bronze bracket.
Soldotna split with Monroe 15-25 and 25-13, split with Service 25-14 and 20-25, beat West 25-17 and 27-25, and beat Kenai 28-26 and 25-21.
Homer lost to Wasilla 21-25 and 16-25, split with North Pole 27-29 and 25-10, lost to Eagle River 25-27 and 11-25, and beat Juneau 25-16 and 25-17.
Nikiski lost to Colony 16-25 and 14-25, split with Lathrop 21-25 and 26-24, lost to East 18-25 and 15-25, and split with Thunder Mountain 22-25 and 25-23.
Kenai split with Service 21-25 and 25-18, lost to West 23-25 and 23-25, split with Monroe 25-19 and 22-25, and lost to Soldotna 26-28 and 21-25.
Seward splits in Valley
The Seward volleyball team split a pair of Southcentral Conference matches Friday and Saturday, beating Houston 3-0 before losing to Redington 3-2. Complete scores were not available as the Clarion went to press, but Redington was able to fend Seward off in the final set 15-12.
