Homer tops Kenai on volleyball court </MCC HEAD>

Story last updated at 7:41 PM on Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Homer tops Kenai on volleyball court

By McKibben Jackinsky
Staff writer

Bouncing back from a loss to Kodiak last week, the Mariners volleyball team snatched first place in its match against Kenai Sept. 24.

"It was really great," said Mariner Head Coach Beth Trowbridge. "It showed real determination and perseverance by my girls and was pretty amazing. They played hard, didn't give up and were aggressive when they needed to be aggressive, playing together as a team."

It wasn't an easy match. In fact, Homer lost the first game 13-25. Rallying, it won the next game 27-25.

"They lost the first game by quite a bit, so it was good they were able to regroup, knew what they had to do and adjusted well to what Kenai was doing," Trowbridge said.

It showed real determination and perseverance by my girls and was pretty amazing. They played hard, didnt give up and were aggressive when they needed to be aggressive, playing together as a team.

-- Mariner Head Coach Beth Trowbridge

Scores for the final three games of the match were 21-25, 25-22 and 15-10.

For individual stats, Jessie Erickson and Carla Mueller both had the team high of 10 kills for the match. Mueller led the team in blocking with 14 block attempts, three solo blocks and two assists.

Brooke DeVaney also had two block assists and three kills. Kayla Hutt had three kills; Ashley Ketelle had two.

"We served pretty tough which helped to keep Kenai from being able to run as many offensive plays," Trowbridge said.

Halo Multz-Howell led the team with six service aces, followed by Ketelle with five and Mueller with four. Lauren Cashman had two service aces for the game.

Defensively, in the back row, Ketelle had 17 digs, followed by Multz-Howell and Mueller each with 13, and Jessie Erickson and Jessica Buckley each with 11. Cashman added seven digs.

McKibben Jackinsky can be reached at mckibben.jackinsky.@homernews.com.