The visiting Soldotna volleyball team defeated Homer 25-14, 25-17, 25-27 and 25-20 on Tuesday in nonconference play.
Both squads were coming off a full weekend of play at the Grizzly Invitational in Anchorage.
“To beat a team on their floor coming off this weekend is nice,” said Soldotna coach Sheila Kupferschmid after improving to 12-2 overall. “The kids were a little tired and lacked some focus.”
Aliann Schmidt led the Stars with 18 kills, four aces and four blocks, while Brittani Blossom had 18 points won on her serve and five aces. Also for the Stars, Carsen Brown had 43 assists, Holleigh Jaime had 12 digs and Kodi McGillivray had nine kills.
SoHi now turns its focus to hosting two games against Northern Lights Conference foe Wasilla — Thursday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
Wasilla is 4-0 in the league, while the Stars are 5-1. These two matches will complete league play for Soldotna. Kupferschmid said another big event on the horizon is a Pink Out match to benefit the Central Peninsula Health Foundation at SoHi on Oct. 25 vs. Kenai.
Homer coach Sara Pennington also said her team was sluggish.
“We started off pretty slow today,” Pennington told the Homer News. “But we just huddled up and said, hey, we need to be more aggressive, we need to take it to them and we just need to play as hard as we can, hustle as fast as we can.
“And they did, and they did it very well.”
In the final game, the Mariners had cut the gap to 24-20 when Pennington called an illegal timeout, giving the Stars a point and the match.
“We were able to come back, and then, I’m just mad I lost it for them,” she said after falling to 5-3 in nontournament play with a second loss to Soldotna. “I take full responsibility because I know that they can hustle and they can get back every point like they did in that third game. … But I’m super proud of them. Their hustle was unbelievable — they were loud, they were positive, they never got down on themselves, and that’s how I hope they play the rest of the season.”
Homer hosts Nikiski at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
Sela Weisser digs a serve while her teammates prepare for their next move during their game against Soldotna High School on Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018 at Homer High School in Homer, Alaska. (Photo by Megan Pacer/Homer News)
Homer’s Laura Inama jumps to serve the ball to the Soldotna High School volleyball team during their game Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018 at Homer High School in Homer, Alaska. (Photo by Megan Pacer/Homer News)
