ANCHORAGE ? Rhea Cardwell ripped 17 kills and setter Calli Scott had 39 assists Saturday to lift the Alaska Anchorage volleyball team to a 25-23, 28-26, 25-22 sweep of longtime rival Seattle Pacific at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.
The victory improved UAA to 10-5 overall and 2-0 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference for just the second time in the league's eight-year history.
SPU (2-9, 0-2) was led by 10 kills apiece from Nikki Finley and Lindsey Wodrich.
The upstart Seawolves, who were picked to finish last in the GNAC preseason coaches' poll, now find themselves in a first-place tie with Central Washington after the first full week of conference play. UAA has now already doubled both its overall and league win totals from 2007.
Cardwell led the way in kills for the 11th straight match and posted her team-best sixth double-double of the year with 15 digs as well. Scott finished with 16 digs, while senior outside hitter Joanna Johnson had another strong outing with nine kills and a team-high 19 digs.
The Seawolves showed resiliency throughout the match, coming back from late deficits in every set ? 22-20 in the first, 17-14 in the second, and 20-16 in the third.
Cardwell had the winner on set point in the opener and delivered the kill that put UAA up 27-26 in the second set. Rachel Kidwell had one of her eight kills on set point to give the Seawolves a 2-0 lead.
In the third, UAA rallied back behind four straight serves from Johnson to tie it 20-20, then finally took its first lead in the frame at 22-21 on a Cardwell kill. The Seawolves finished the match with a kill from Cortney Lundberg (9 kills) and an attack error by Finley.
The Seawolves begin a four-match road swing next week when they travel to Fairbanks to take on arch-rival UAF (8-4, 2-1) at 3 p.m. on Sept. 27.
