ANCHORAGE – Sophomore Eve Stephens blasted 15 kills on .538 hitting as the Alaska Anchorage volleyball team overcame first- and third-set deficits to claim a 26-24, 25-17, 26-24 victory over Saint Martin's at the Alaska Airlines Center on Thursday night.

The Seawolves (21-6, 16-3 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) also got nine kills apiece from junior Kayla McGlathery and senior Vanessa Hayes in extending their program record to 24 straight victories over the visitors from Lacey, Wash.

Coming off their first victory of the season on Saturday, the Saints (1-27, 1-18) were led by 16 kills and eight digs from outside hitter Mackenzie Carter, while libero Kylie Alos tallied an impressive 29 digs.

"Our poor serving in the first set made things much tougher on us tonight than it needed to be," said UAA head coach Chris Green, whose team holds the No. 5 spot in the NCAA Div. II West Region rankings. "Luckily our block came through for us at the end of that set, and we were able to start finding some holes in their defense from there. Eve was huge again tonight, both offensively and defensively, and our middles attacked the ball extremely well."

After trailing much of the opening frame, UAA needed a major rally to take the early advantage. Carter spotted her team three set points with a kill to make it 24-21, but the Saints' offensive leader hit her next attempt into the net, opening the door for the Seawolves. Following a timeout, Stephens blocked Carter on three successive rallies to make it a 25-24 UAA lead, and McGlathery launched a kill to finish the 5-0 run and end the set.

The Seawolves hit .444 in the second set as junior middle blocker Vera Pluharova connected for five kills and no errors on eight attempts, and sophomore libero Talia Leauanae made four of her team-high 16 digs.

The third was another fight to finish, with Saint Martin's claiming a 14-12 lead on a kill by Ililani Kamaka. UAA turned the tide with an 8-0 run that included a pair of aces from junior defensive specialist Anjoilyn Vreeland, but the Saints responded with a 5-0 surge of their own, and tied the set at 23-23 on a kill from Emily Gooding. Saint Martin's repelled one match point on another Gooding kill, but McGlathery found a hole in the middle of the Saints defense for a 25-24 lead, and freshman Hannah Pembroke ended it with her third kill of the night.

Sophomore setter Ellen Floyd – the reigning GNAC Offensive and AVCA Div. II National Player of the Week – tallied 40 assists, three kills and five digs to help UAA to a .357 attack percentage, and junior middle blocker Jalisa Ingram ripped all three of her kills late in the third set.

Stephens committed just one attack error on 26 swings, along with six digs and a match-high five total blocks.

With the victory, UAA remains one match behind nationally 6th-ranked and regionally 2nd-ranked Western Washington (25-2, 17-2), which claimed no worse than a tie for its third straight GNAC title with a 3-0 win at Central Washington earlier Thursday. Should WWU get upset Saturday at Northwest Nazarene, UAA could claim a share of the title – its first since 2016 – and the GNAC's automatic NCAA Tournament bid with a win over Seattle Pacific (Sat., 7 p.m. AST, Alaska Airlines Center).