Anchorage Daily News

Even before the first serve Thursday at Service High, the Service Cougars braced for a close and hard-fought match against Eagle River, last season's third-place finisher at both the Cook Inlet Conference tournament and the state tournament.

But this year the Wolves won't be heading to the state tournament. Service snatched the ticket to the conference semifinals, sweeping the Wolves 25-23, 25-21, 25-14.

Perhaps the most equally matched teams in the region, Service (7-7) and Eagle River (6-8) split in regular conference matches, with each one lasting five sets.

The even matchup was obvious in the first set -- the Cougars and Wolves were never more than four points apart.

At 22-22, Eagle River called a timeout to stop the Cougars' four-point run, but came back to the court only to lose two more points on unforced errors.

After another Eagle River timeout at 24-22, Service missed a game-ending opportunity when double contact was called on middle hitter Annie Zager. But she quickly made up for the mistake with an expertly placed tip to end the set 25-23.

Zager ended the similar second set the same way -- hitting out of bounds at 24-20 then ending the game with a line shot that the Wolves didn't even touch.

Keeping with the pattern, set three ended with a blocking error by Zager that she immediately followed with a match-point kill in the middle of the court.

With their season on the line, the Wolves played timidly in the third set. Even Eagle River defensive specialist Alyssa Klaameyer struggled to pass, giving Service's Anna Cartwright two aces in a seven-point service run.

After Cartwright, Zager went on a seven-point service run of her own, with most of her serves returned as free balls.

With middle hitter Zager on the service line, freshman middle Katelynn Zanders had a chance to dominate the net. Zanders posted a match-high 12 kills, most of which came in the third set. She attributed her third-set success to setting that benefited from Eagle River's inability to challenge the Service defense.

"We were playing not to lose," said a tearful Eagle River senior Nikkie Viotto after she packed her gym bag. "It's hard, coming from last year when we went to state."

Not only did the Wolves go to state a year ago -- they beat Dimond to capture third place.

"We thought it was our year," Viotto said.

Despite the loss, Viotto turned in a hitting performance that impressed the Cougars and earned the Wolves 13 kills.

"She's definitely the hardest hitter in the league today," said Service's Kelsey Fall, who was responsible for digging most of Viotto's hits. "She can see where the open spots are and (hits) there."

Viotto's armswing, noticeably faster than most hitters in the conference, also challenged Service diggers.

"You just can't react to that kind of speed," said Fall.

With the first-round win, the Cougars advanced to today's semifinals to face top-ranked Dimond.

South also earned a semifinal spot after making quick work of East on Thursday, winning 25-7, 25-15, 25-11. The Wolverines face second-ranked Chugiak in tonight's semifinals.

On Thursday, Kodiak beat Homer in three tight sets 25-23, 25-20, 25-22 in the Northern Lights Conference tournament.

Palmer swept Soldotna 25-14, 25-21, 25-23 and Colony easily defeated Kenai 25-10, 25-16, 25-8. Skyview dropped a set but topped Wasilla 25-18, 25-14, 17-25, 25-17.

Thursday's winners advanced to today's semifinals at Kenai High School where Kodiak faces Palmer and Colony meets Skyview.

Daily News reporter Heather March can be reached at 257-4335.

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