Soldotna went 6-2 on the opening day of the West Spiketacular volleyball tournament, which hosts many of the state’s top teams. 21 complete teams showed up for action Friday at West High and Romig Middle Schools.

On-court play varies from the usual format, as team play to 20 points in each set and matches consist of two sets.

SoHi won games against Nome, Lathrop and Eagle River with scores of 2-0 each, but ended Friday with an 0-2 loss to East Anchorage.

The Stars will begin Saturday with a pair of morning games against West Anchorage and Wasilla at 9:30 and 11 a.m. respectively. From there, teams will be sorted into one of three brackets — Gold, Silver or Bronze.

“We still have a fighting chance to get into the gold bracket,” said SoHi coach Sheila Kupferschmid.

South and West finished the day with perfect records, and will start Saturday in the Gold bracket.

Kenai ended Friday with a 2-4 record, while Nikiski ended 3-5.

Homer starts strong in Valdez

The Mariners got going with a strong start on day 1 of the Valdez Volleyball Invitational, going 6-2 in Friday’s round robin format to start Saturday seeded third in the Gold Bracket.

Homer won with game scores of 25-20 over Delta, 25-15 over Galena, 25-10 over Cordova, 25-17 over Bethel, 25-12 over the Valdez JV, and 25-17 over North Pole. The Mariners lost to Valdez (varsity) 21-25 and Grace Christian 23-25.

The top five teams advance into the gold bracket, and Homer moved on with a third-place result. Valdez led the bracket and Grace Christian was second. North Pole and Cordova rounded out the top five.

Larsen Fellows ended the day with 23 kills, six aces and nine digs to lead the Mariners. Teammate Maggie LaRue provided 14 digs and seven aces, Jane Rohr racked up 22 kills, four digs and three aces, McKi Needham had 10 kills and nine digs, and Maryhanna Bowe finished with 10 kills, eight aces and six digs.