The Northern Lights Conference Tournament in Wasilla this past weekend proved the end of the road for the Homer Mariner volleyball squad's 2009 season, and a tough one at that.

Homer dropped two matches without winning a game, but they managed to play well against some of the strongest competition in the state before exiting from the effort to reach the state championship tournament, Head Coach Beth Trowbridge said Monday.

The Mariners first met the Colony Knights, losing 12-25, 14-25 and 20-25 Thursday night.

"Each game we got better and the scores reflected that," Trowbridge said. "Offensively, we were pretty solid, but we had trouble keeping up defensively with their quick attack and once they started to move things around in their front line, we had trouble getting a double block on them to help our back row defense."

Friday, the Ms faced the tough Wasilla Warriors who were playing before a home-gym crowd. The Warriors downed Homer 25-17, 25-16 and 25-10.

"Although we played pretty well, we were not at the top of our game," Trowbridge said. "Our defense had a hard time coming up with the digs off of their attack and our offense was not on. As a team, we had 12 kills (hits for points) and 13 kill errors, so we were in the negative and that doesn't win many games."

Nevertheless, Trowbridge said, overall the Mariners displayed consistent serving during the course of the weekend, and their serve receiving was solid, too.

Carla Muller led the team with 16 kills over the weekend, followed by Jessie Erickson with five, Zoe Fogg with three, and Brooke De Vaney, Halo Multz-Howell and Ashley Ketelle each with two, Trowbridge said. Muller also led the team with five solo blocks, and Fogg added one more.

Jessica Buckley led the team with 16 digs. Erickson added 14, Muller and Ketelle another 11 each. Multz-Howell had eight digs, Fogg seven, and Lauren Cashman six, she said.

Erickson was selected to the Second All Conference Team and Muller earned a spot on the Good Sport Team, Trowbridge noted.

"As a team, we improved a lot over the season and some of my players played their best volleyball during the last three weeks," Trowbridge said. "I have been very proud of the way the team has stayed focused and worked hard to improve. This will pay off in the next couple of years."