SEATTLE ? A solid all-around performance from outside hitter Joanna Johnson ? coupled with clutch hitting by Rhea Cardwell in the final game ? resulted in the Alaska Anchorage volleyball team's first league victory of the season Thursday, a 30-28, 30-28, 19-30, 19-30, 15-9 upset of Seattle Pacific at Royal Brougham Pavilion.
The Seawolves (5-7, 1-5 GNAC) also got a match-high 20 digs from junior libero Cristal Negron as they snapped a 5-match losing streak and knocked off the defending Great Northwest Athletic Conference champs.
SPU (8-6, 3-3) received a huge 25-kill showing from senior star Alyssa Given and 19 kills from Angie Wodrich, but the Seawolves featured the more balanced offense with eight kills apiece from Rachel Kidwell and Kim Stolk, plus five from Jessica Morehouse.
Kidwell, after struggling last week at home, posted a career-best .316 attack percentage (8 kills-2 errors-19 attempts), along with 15 digs and three service aces.
After allowing the Falcons to bounce back from a 2-games-to-none deficit to force the deciding frame, the Seawolves appeared in trouble early in the fifth, falling behind 5-4 on a kill by SPU's Rachel Biornstad. But Cardwell and Kidwell followed with back-to-back kills, and a pair of Falcon attack errors gave UAA an 8-5 lead it would not relinquish.
The Seawolves polished off the match with the final four points, three of them coming on Cardwell kills. Cardwell, a junior outside hitter from Prineville, Ore., had five of her 13 kills in the fifth game and also tallied 12 digs, resulting in her team-best seventh double-double this year.
Johnson, another junior, from Tustin, Calif., was consistent throughout, tallying 15 kills, 13 digs and four block assists. Stolk, the team's lone senior, contributed four block assists and one solo.
UAA snapped a 6-match losing streak against SPU, having last defeated the Falcons in November 2003 in Seattle. The Seawolves have now equaled their 2006 victory total just before the midseason point.
UAA will try to keep momentum rolling Saturday, winding up the road trip at Northwest Nazarene (9-5, 3-3) in Nampa, Idaho. That match starts at 5 p.m. ADT.
