newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS — North Pole’s powerful middle attack was too much for the Monroe Catholic Rams to handle Monday night as the Patriots won the high school volleyball match in three straight sets.

“Tonight was like a roller coaster for us,” Monroe Catholic coach Mike Lessley said. “We had some great moments, and then we had a lot of unforced errors that really hurt us.”

Lessley said he got strong performances from middle blockers Katie Young and Isabella Evans, good hitting from Jocelyn Ribar and Lexi Tompkins and solid setting from Emma Young and Melissa Lynch.

“Our passing game wasn’t on tonight,” Lessley said. “When your passing game isn’t on, you’re not going to score a lot of points.”

Monroe Catholic will play at the Grace Christian tournament this weekend. North Pole is scheduled to play at Hutchison tonight.

In other matches tonight, West Valley hosts Delta Junction and Lathrop is at Eielson.

Diving

The North Pole boys and West Valley girls won the Bartlett/Chugiak Invitational team diving titles last weekend in Anchorage.

The North Pole boys were led by individual champion Sam White, who scored 387.5 points in the 11-dive event. Teammate Cory Koop placed eighth among the 26 divers competing in the event. Freshman Rafe Hembree rounded out the team.

West Valley was led by the second-place finish of Kelsey Morton. Alyssa Miller placed fourth, and Savannah Craft took eighth.