The Soldotna volleyball team earned a second straight berth to the Class 4A state volleyball tournament by finishing second at the Northern Lights Conference tournament Saturday at Colony High School in Palmer.

The state tournament is Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage.

SoHi coach Luke Baumer, who earned conference Coach of the Year honors for the first time, will go to state for the third time in five years. Baumer started with SoHi in 2019 and did not have a chance to go to state in 2020 due to the pandemic.

Sadie Lane and Cassidy Kruse made first-team all-conference, while Hallie Fischer and Veronica Crane were on the second team. Fischer also made the good sport team.

The Stars, the No. 2 seed, started Saturday with a match against Colony, the No. 4 seed, to get to the championship and earn a state berth.

SoHi won 25-16, 29-27, 18-25, 21-25 and 15-9.

Baumer said everything went fine for the first two games.

“That nervous energy kind of started settling in,” Baumer said. “I think the biggest thing I saw with our girls was they felt the pressure of knowing this was the match that was going to send them to state, or not.”

Baumer said the Stars turned it around for the fifth set.

“We talked about making sure that no matter what happens, we’re going to finish this the way we’ve been having our success,” he said. “That’s by swings and hitting.”

Crane had 29 digs in the match, while Morgan Simac had 25. Sarah Brown had 36 assists.

Lane had 14 kills, while Kruse had 13 and Fischer had 12. Kruse had 11 blocks, while Fischer had 10.

Lane and Fischer had four aces, while Abygale Schaeffer had three.

SoHi lost the title match to No. 1 Wasilla 25-14, 23-25, 25-13 and 26-24. The Warriors defended their conference crown and will look to defend their state crown this weekend.

“We played at a whole other level when we played Wasilla,” Baumer said. “We definitely played at our best when we played them this weekend.”

Crane had 22 digs, while Simac had 19. Brown had 21 assists.

Fischer had nine kills, while Kruse had six. Kruse, Fischer and Brown each had two blocks.

Schaeffer, Fischer and Crane each had two aces.

Baumer said the play of the team against Wasilla has him feeling good headed to state. He said middle blockers Kruse and Fischer have come on in a big way and that has made all the difference.

“I just wanted to throw out a big shoutout to Hallie Fischer,” he said. “She’s made a huge improvement in her senior year.

“Things clicked really well for her, especially in the last month of the season.”

The Stars have a big test in the first round, facing Dimond at 3:15 p.m. Thursday. The Lynx are the Cook Inlet Conference champions.

Soldotna senior middle blocker Hallie Fischer reaches for the block during a 3-1 loss to Wasilla in the Northern Lights Conference Championships title match Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024, at Colony High School in Palmer, Alaska. (Photo by Jeremiah Bartz/Frontiersman)