The Homer High School varsity volleyball team took first place in the silver bracket of last weekend’s Dimond/Service Tourney, held in Anchorage.

Head coach Brenna Dornellas said that Homer made it into the silver bracket on Saturday based on results of their pool play Friday. Teams could be placed in gold, silver or bronze brackets.

“Friday, we played four different teams, two sets to 20 points,” Dornellas said Monday. “We landed in silver, which was so great because all of the teams there were 4A teams, so we were competing on a completely different level than what our normal conference games are.”

Homer is a 3A school, a designation determined by the school’s population size.

The Mariners defeated Kenai two out of three sets in the championship game of the tournament — 25-23, 23-25, 15-13. The Homer team has improved 24-15-3 overall.

Dornellas said that the Mariners won the last set of the championship game with an “epic” solo block by middle blocker Jaelynn Kennon. Outside hitters Swift Blackstock and Reilly Sue Baker had “great offensive attacks” and libero Piper Fuchs gave an “amazing” performance on defense.

“My back-row players, Bella Loboy and Emma Fisher, both of those athletes stepped in when we needed them to throughout the match,” she said. “And we would not be able to run the plays that we run without our setter, Alysha Nyvall.”

Dornellas added that Nyvall “had an awesome game with tons of assists” and at least 10 aces on Saturday.

The Lady Mariners will once more face off against Kenai on the Kards’ home turf on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. before travelling to Redington on Friday and Houston on Saturday for further conference play.

“We were happy to see Kenai in the (Dimond/Service) tournament. That kind of helped us to prepare for Thursday,” Dornellas said. “The only difference there is that we’ll go to five sets with them for varsity, so there’s more of an opportunity there.”

She said she expected the upcoming competition against Redington and Houston to be “great games” and to help the Mariners prepare for the regional championships on Nov. 6. This week’s play will determine whether Homer earns a spot in the championships.

“It’ll depend on how this weekend goes,” she said. “I think we need to win at least two sets against Kenai on Thursday, and then it’ll decide where we land. So no pressure.”