Volleyball falls in wild match to rival UAA, 3-2
October 29, 2012
Jamie Foland
474-6807
The rivalry certainly lived up to the hype once again and despite Alaska's rally to force a fifth and final set, Alaska Anchorage was able to escape the boisterous Patty Center with a 3-2 Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball victory on Saturday night in front of 677 spectators.
The Seawolves (14-6, 9-3 GNAC) defeated the Nanooks (4-14, 2-10 GNAC) by match scores of 25-20, 23-25, 29-27, 18-25 and 15-13 as three players tallied double-figure kills for UAA.
Katelynn Zanders led the way with a match-high 17 kills to go with block assists and Julia Mackey had 15 terminations while Sarah Johnson contributed 12 kills with a .265 hitting percentage and 14 digs. Kimya Jafroudi dished out a match-best 54 assists as well as 11 digs and three block assists and Siobhan Johansen had 32 digs, also a match-high.
Alaska was paced by freshman outside hitter Sam Harthun, who had a team-high 15 kills to go with 12 digs and three total blocks (two solo). Senior outside hitter Reilly Stevens produced eight kills, 19 digs and two blocks (one solo) while junior outside hitter Keri Knight also had eight kills, a match and career-best four service aces and a solo block. Freshman setter Katlyn Mataya had a career-high seven kills and had 39 dimes and 15 digs and senior libero Allison Oddy accrued a team-high 29 digs.
UAA hit .173 to Alaska's .122 but the Seawolves made 30 attack errors and 21 service blunders. The Nanooks had 29 errors on the attack and had only 10 service errors. The Blue and Gold outscored the 'Wolves 5-2 on aces but the visitors made 10.5 blocks to Alaska's seven. The Seawolves had 13 more assists (59-46) but the Nanooks outdug them 91-83. The match saw a combined 377 attempts on net from the two squads.
With the first set tied at 10-10, Anchorage scored eight of nine due in part six kills and a block to grab an 18-11 lead. Trailing 21-14, Alaska kept fighting, reeling off six of the next eight points to close the gap to 22-20. Following an Oddy service error and Morgan Tebbs error, Johnson closed the first set at 25-20 to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
The Nanooks surged out into the second set with an early 9-3 lead but saw it quickly disappear as Anchorage crept back with a 9-4 run to trim the margin to 13-12. Trailing 16-14, UAA had a pair of kills by Nikkie Viotto followed up by a Harthun error to give it a 17-16 advantage. Tied at 19-19, the 'Nooks regained the lead with three straight points but the 'Wolves had three of their own to knot it at 22 apiece. Mackey produced a kill to give them a 23-22 lead, but a Stevens kills and UAA error put the hosts on set point. Alaska closed it out with a Knight termination to tie the match at 1-1.
The third was as wild as a set can be with 18 ties and five lead changes. After UAA led 14-12 midway through neither team led by more than that as the teams began trading points. With the set tied at 23, Harthun put the 'Nooks on set point at 24-23 but Zanders had a powerful swing to keep the set alive. Anchorage survived three more set points and with the set knotted at 27, a kill by Zanders and a Knight attack error gave the Seawolves the third, 29-27.
Leading 9-6 in the fourth, Alaska extended the advantage to 14-7 with a 5-1 run. UAA closed the gap, however, scoring five in a row to trim the deficit to 17-15. Leading 18-16, the Nanooks took control of the frame with the next four points to lead 22-16. They would go on to take the fourth 25-18 to force a fifth set.
The race to 15 saw six ties and three lead changes. UAA led 6-5 but upped the advantage to 10-6 with a mini 4-0 run. Alaska didn't surrender, as it took advantage of two UAA errors and a pair of Tebbs kills to knot it at 10. The Nanooks kept it going, scoring two more to lead 12-10. A Zanders kill and bad Mataya set once again squared the teams at 12-12, but Harthun came back with a kill to give the 'Nooks a 13-12 lead. Zanders answered with a termination and after a Stevens error, Mackey, the Fairbanks native, closed the match with a thunderous kill.
The Nanooks hit the road next week to take on Simon Fraser and Western Washington. Both matches are set for 6 p.m. (AKDT) starts.