ANCHORAGE -- Led by outstanding performances up and down the lineup, the UAA volleyball team played its best match of the young season Friday night to post a 30-23, 33-31, 30-20 victory over Notre Dame de Namur in the Extended Stay Deluxe Invitational.
With the victory, UAA (3-4) clinched a place in Saturday's 7 p.m. title match, where it will take on Briar Cliff. NDNU (3-5) finishes round-robin play Saturday morning against LaGrange, but even with a 3-0 victory in that match the Argonauts cannot win any tiebreakers against UAA or BCU.
After showing improvement in a win over LaGrange earlier Friday, the Seawolves appeared nothing like the team that was swept the previous night by BCU. UAA took early leads against NDNU in every game and rode the hot hitting of Chelsey Jones (12 kills, .500 attack pct.), Heather Lyons (9 kills, .304) and Tehane Kahalehau (8 kills, .667) to dominate Saturday night's affair.
Kahalehau, a freshman setter from Wailuku, Hawaii, orchestrated the Seawolves' most efficient offensive showing of the season (.286 team attack pct.) with 36 assists. Sophomore Caitlin Grenier had nine kills and a career-high five aces, and Lyons snagged a match-high 13 digs.
NDNU, of Belmont, Calif., was led by Marissa Miller's match-high 14 kills.
After leading throughout game 1, the Seawolves appeared to be cruising to another win in game 2 with a 27-23 advantage. But the Argonauts came back with six straight points to put the Seawolves' backs against the wall. UAA would fight off a pair of game points, however, as Kim Stolk slammed a kill right down the middle, and Pasadeanna Aukusitino made it 29-29 with a kill after a long rally.
After fighting off another game point at 31-30, the Seawolves took the game with an Aukusitino ace and a quick kill from Kahalehau on a nice pass from Rachael Knecht (12 digs).
Aukusitino had nine kills and eight digs, while Stolk finished with five kills and four block assists.
