ANCHORAGE – Kayla McGlathery had 13 kills and eight blocks and Anjoilyn Vreeland served four straight aces to cap a 5th-set comeback for the Alaska Anchorage volleyball team Tuesday in a 20-25, 25-11, 23-25, 25-14, 15-11 victory over Alaska Fairbanks at the Alaska Airlines Center.

The Seawolves (14-5, 9-2 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) also got 13 kills, 12 digs and four blocks from right-side hitter Eve Stephens as they avenged one of their two league losses and avoided being swept in the season series for the first time since 2008.

The Nanooks (9-10, 6-5) got a match-high 16 kills from outside hitter Markie Miller and eight total blocks from Emily Moorhead, but the visitors were outhit .230 to .140 and hurt by a tough night in the service game, including a 15-8 disadvantage in aces.

"We came out absolutely flat and had to scrap for every point in this one," said UAA head coach Chris Green, whose team had won 17 of 18 opening sets before Tuesday. "This was a match we couldn't afford to lose, and luckily we responded to the pressure in the fifth set. Our block came up huge with Kayla on the right side, and Anjoilyn's serving was amazing."

After hitting .000 in the first set, the Seawolves turned it around quickly in the second, connecting for a .591 attack percentage and cruising behind 12 assists from setter Ellen Floyd, who finished with 46 assists, 14 digs and a career-high-tying six block assists.

The Seawolves played catchup throughout the third set, trailing 16-11 midway through and 23-18 in the late going. Senior Vanessa recorded two of her 10 kills during a 5-0 run to tie it, before the Nanooks finally claimed their 2-1 advantage behind consecutive kills by Miller.

The fourth set was a virtual repeat of the second, with the Seawolves outhitting the Nanooks .379 to .042 and getting six kills on nine swings from McGlathery.

UAF – which suffered its third 5-set loss during its current 4-match losing streak – trailed 4-3 early in the fifth before pulling ahead with a 5-0 run. Sophie Schilling committed one of four Nanook service errors in the set, however, and the Seawolves took advantage with a surge of their own, grabbing a 10-9 lead on a block by McGlathery and Floyd.

A kill by AveRee Reynolds gave UAF a 11-10 lead, but another service error tied it again, and Vreeland took over for her serve. The junior defensive specialist from Dimond High served two aces to prompt a Nanook timeout, and followed with two more – one that landed just inside the back line and a match-point serve that caromed off the fingers of UAF's Lahra Weber.

"We'd practiced pressure serving last night and I was kind of feeling myself, so I'm not really surprised by the result," said Vreeland, whose seven aces were the most for a Seawolf in the 25-point, rally scoring era (since 2008) and the most for any UAA player since Rachael Knecht had seven against LaGrange in 2006.

In addition to .360 hitting by McGlathery, junior middle blocker Vera Pluharova came through with a career-high 11 kills on .474 hitting to spur the offense.

Sophomore libero Talia Leauanae had the second-most assists in her career with 24, along with four assists, and freshman defensive specialist Katie Hoeffner tallied a career-high 13 digs.

GNAC aces leaders Hayes and Maggie Schlueter served three apiece as the Seawolves wound up with a season-high 15 aces.

UAA – which now trails 6th-ranked Western Washington by just half a match in the GNAC standings – returns to the road with a Thursday (5 p.m. ADT) test at Montana State Billings. That match can be seen live at gnac.tv.