Soldotna volleyball grabbed a road win against Homer Tuesday night with a 3-1 nonconference victory.
The Stars took hold early, winning with game scores of 25-21, 25-17, 23-25 and 25-16, moving the Stars season record to 5-1 overall.
“It was a good win, especially after all the homecoming activities,” said SoHi coach Sheila Kupferschmid. “We weren’t as smooth tonight, and Homer played very good defense, but I’m happy we won it in four.”
Hayley Ramsell led the attack with 13 kills, six service points and five blocks. Teammates Makenna Rosin had eight kills and four blocks, Lindsey Wong notched five service points, Skylar Shaw had five kills and five service points, Haley Miller had five kills and five service points, and Bailey Rosin had one kill.
Alex Ashe took hold defensively with 31 digs, along with three service points, while Shaw had 14 digs
Jane Rohr led the Mariners with five kills, three service aces and 16 digs, while teammate Maggie LaRue notched 30 digs.
Larsen Fellows recorded 17 digs and four kills, McKi Needham had 17 digs, Malina Fellows had five service aces, Izabelle Hagge had six digs, and Maryhana Bowe tallied three aces and two kills.
Soldotna travels to Kodiak for a pair of Northern Lights Conference matches Friday and Saturday. Homer takes on Cordova at home Friday night and Saturday.
Nikiski 3, Seward 0
The Bulldogs also found success on the road Tuesday night, sweeping the Seahawks in Seward with game scores of 26-24, 25-19 and 25-14.
Nikiski also swept the season against Seward, after beating their Southcentral Conference rivals earlier in the year. The Bulldogs improved to 5-2 in conference play.
Nikiski coach Stacey Segura said she was happy to see her team sweep all three matches, a first for the Bulldogs in 2014.
“It was our goal tonight to come to Seward and send a message,” Segura said.
Segura added that the defensive play of senior libero Laura Hufford and junior Zykiah Cooney was “phenomenal”. Hufford notched 43 digs (with only eight errors), and Cooney had six digs.
Senior setter Rachel Thompson led the offense with 16 assists, 12 digs, seven kills and seven serving aces, and Brittany Perry added eight kills.
Seward held match point in the first set at 24-18, but Nikiski rallied back with eight straight points to take the win and preserved the shutout.
“I was telling the girls to get this game over so we could start over in the next set,” Segura said. “But they pulled through, it was one point after the other, and it was all defense.”
Seward coach Jamie Frederickson said she could see it in her player’s eyes that once Nikiski began clawing back, they tensed up.
“I’ve known them long enough now, and they started doubting that,” Frederickson said. “As soon as they made a mistake, they kind of lost it, and they couldn’t recover.”
Seward was led by senior middle hitter Misha Johnson-Gray, who had 13 hits, two aces and one kill, along with five blocks. Senior Maria Jackson had 15 hits and three kills, and senior Cary Anderson added six service points.
Nikiski will be taking a much longer road trip this weekend, playing games in Bethel on Friday night and Saturday. Seward travels to Kenai Central Friday night.
