Soldotna volleyball sweeps Kenai Central

The host Soldotna volleyball team defeated Kenai Central 25-20, 25-22 and 25-21 on Friday in nonconference action.

The Stars improved to 2-0 in nontournament play by defeating the Kardinals for the first time since 2019. The Kards are 1-1.

“It’s always tough to play Kenai, because even when you’re up by a lot, Kenai’s always able to come back,” Soldotna coach Luke Baumer said. “They always stay really composed, and they always do a really good job being able to make adjustments.

“So we knew it was not over at any time.”

The Kardinals had two returning starters — Sophie Tapley and Brynnen Hanson — on the floor from the team that finished runner-up at the Class 3A state tournament last year after winning the title the previous two years.

Ellsi Miller also is a returning starter for Kenai, but is healing up from an injury.

Kenai had won a season-opening jamboree that included Soldotna and had defeated Seward.

“I don’t think we’ve arrived, but we’ve won quite a bit, so it’s good to lose at this point so that we keep growing and don’t stay status quo,” Kenai Central coach Tracie Beck said. “But I thought they showed up in their own house, and it’s always fun to play in front of your crowd.”

Soldotna’s defense, led by the 20 digs of Grayson Henry, was a constant that Baumer said was the biggest factor in the match. Rebekah Pieh led the defense with two blocks.

“She was all over the place,” Baumer said of Henry. “She did a good job of covering the back part of our court, like all of it.”

Beck said the attack is usually Kenai’s strong suit, but that the Kards didn’t get a lot of balls down against the Stars.

On offense, Teagan Kobylarz, who had 18 digs, 30 assists and five aces, was able to find Cassidy Kruse for 16 kills and Gracelyn Altobelli for 10 kills.

“When you don’t have firepower like that, Kenai’s just going to keep getting balls back up and keep putting them back in,” Baumer said.

The serve and serve-receive game was marked by inconsistency on both sides.

Soldotna missed 15 serves, yet Beck said the Stars served well.

“They gave us plenty of opportunity, we just didn’t capitalize on that,” Beck said.

Beck said the Kards didn’t meet their objectives on the serve, yet Baumer said his squad struggled at times at serve-receive, especially against Gracee Every.

Serving did provide the greatest turnaround in the match. Kenai led 22-17 in Game 2 before Daisy Samples served out the last eight points, including two aces.

“Her serve is one of the best and most consistent on the team,” Baumer said. “She was a difference maker for us since the second set when we put her in.”

In Game 3, Kenai jumped to a 10-3 lead, but SoHi came back again.

Beck said her returners played well. The coach also said Every did a great job at setter, taking her place in a long line of Kenai excellence at the position. Beck added the team’s lack of experience showed, though.

“It’s not that they don’t want to do well, they just haven’t been in that situation long enough to know how to do it,” she said.