THIS WEEK IN ALASKA ANCHORAGE VOLLEYBALL...
 
Saturday, Oct. 16 – Alaska Airlines Center – Anchorage, Alaska – 2 pm ADT
Alaska Fairbanks (13-7, 6-2 GNAC) at No. 23 Alaska Anchorage (14-5, 7-0 GNAC)
 
LIVE VIDEO: Free on YouTube
 
LIVE STATS: GoSeawolves.com/sidearmstats/wvball/summary
 
SOCIAL MEDIA: Check the @UAAVolleyball Twitter feed for in-match updates
 
TICKETS: Surf to GoSeawolves.com to purchase tickets and get parking information for the Alaska Airlines Center ... masks are required for all attendees.
 
UAA PROBABLE STARTERS (2021 stats)
S—Ellen Floyd, 5-10, Jr. (9.91 aps, 0.90 kps, .143 att%, 2.97 dps, 0.49 bps, 0.52 ace/set)
RS—Eve Stephens, 6-1, Jr. (3.91 kps, .277 att%, 2.28 dps, 0.78 bps, 0.49 ace/set)
OH—Lisa Jaunet, 5-10, So. (2.64 kps, .207 att%)
MB—Vera Pluharova, 6-2, Sr. (1.81 kps, .351 att%, 0.97 bps)
MB—Akor Maywin, 6-2, Jr. (1.32 kps, .338 att%, 0.90 bps)
DS—Nicole Blue, 5-9, Fr. (1.57 dps, 0.22 ace/set)
L—Talia Leauanae, 5-8, Jr. (3.51 dps, 0.48 ace/set)
 
THE SERIES...
vs UAF: UAA leads 75-37 overall, 42-13 in Anchorage
Last: UAA 3-0 (4/17/21 at UAF) / Streak: UAA 2
Notes: UAA won three of four meetings during last spring's 'pandemic' season ... teams split 2019 season, with each team holding homecourt ... six of the last nine meetings have been 4- or 5-setters ... UAA is 6-0 vs. UAF at the Alaska Airlines Center ... UAA leads 27-11 in GNAC meetings (since 2001) and 22-6 under head coach Chris Green (since 2008) ... teams have played at least twice every season since 1980.
 
SCOUTING THE NANOOKS: Alaska Fairbanks has won nine of its last 11 contests, battling its way into GNAC title and playoff contention this season, playing virtually the same schedule as UAA … the Nanooks, whose GNAC losses have come at Western Washington and Simon Fraser, are led by MB AveRee Reynolds (2.73 kps, .174 att%, 0.97 bps) and S Cate Whiting (9.75 aps, .299 att%, 3.65 dps)
 
WWU MATCH RESCHEDULED: The Seawolves' Sept. 30 match at Western Washington was postponed due to COVID-19 concerns and has been rescheduled for Nov. 8.
 
MAGNIFICENT SEVEN: The Seawolves established their longest GNAC winning streak (7) since 2016 and remained the lone unbeaten in league play with victories over No. 25 Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene last week at the Alaska Airlines Center … on Thursday, Jr. RS Eve Stephens tied her career high with 26 kills and added 3 aces to help UAA come back for a 25-16, 22-25, 21-25, 25-15, 15-10 victory over the Wildcats … So. OH Lisa Jaunet had 12 kills, Sr. MB Vera Pluharova had 7 kills and a UAA season-high 9 total blocks, and Jr. S Ellen Floyd tallied 43 assists, 19 digs and a career-high-tying 7 kills as the Seawolves outhit the visitors .234 to .101 … Jr. L Talia Leauanae tied her own UAA season high with 21 digs and added a career-best 9 assists … on Saturday, Stephens ripped 15 kills on .452 hitting and Floyd dished 40 assists in a 25-21, 25-22, 25-17 sweep of NNU … Fr. OH Mahala Kaapuni had 10 kills and Pluharova racked up 7 kills on .700 hitting and 4 blocks as UAA's .400 hitting percentage was its best in a GNAC match since 2015 ... Stephens and Pluharova were named the GNAC's offensive and defensive players-of-the-week for their respective efforts.
 
TEAM NOTES: UAA returned to the NCAA Div. II national poll this week for the first time since Sept. 25, 2017, which was the last of a program-record 32 consecutive weeks in the rankings ... the Seawolves' current 13-match GNAC winning streak (dating to Nov. 7, 2019) is the program's second-longest, trailing only the 22 straight from Oct. 17, 2015 to Oct. 20, 2016 ... the seven straight GNAC wins in one season are UAA's most since going on 11- and 8-match win streaks in the 2016 NCAA runner-up season ... UAA leads the GNAC statistics with 2.22 aces per set (14th nationally) and a .239 attack percentage (38th nationally), while ranking second with a .148 opponent attack pct. ... the Seawolves need just two more wins to secure their 14th consecutive winning season, trying to extend the program record that began with Chris Green's arrival at UAA in 2008 ... the Seawolves are 78-17 (.821) at the Alaska Airlines Center since its opening in Sept. 2014 and 125-29 (.812) at home since 2009; UAA has never lost consecutive matches at the Alaska Airlines Center ... UAA has reached the 20-win plateau 14 times in its 39 full seasons and seven times in 12 full seasons under Green ... UAA is also trying to extend program-best streaks of 11 straight winning conference records and top-4 GNAC finishes ... the Seawolves are 21-15 against AVCA Top 25 teams since 2014 and 31-42 overall vs. ranked opponents under Green; prior to Green's arrival, UAA had lost 32 straight to ranked foes.
 
GOOD EVE: Jr. RS Eve Stephens has lived up to her GNAC Preseason Player of the Year billing, earning her second GNAC offensive player-of-the-week accolade last week, to go with all-tournament honors at the Seawolf Invitational and the Nanook Classic ... the 2019 AVCA Second Team All-American and two-time unanimous All-GNAC honoree holds GNAC leads the GNAC with 4.82 points per set (7th nationally), along with league ranks of 2nd in kills per set (3.91), 3rd in aces per set (0.49) and 11th in hitting pct. (.277) ... the Palmer (Colony HS) product has seven double-doubles this year and 25 for her career after leading the GNAC in both kills and points per set in 2019 and 2020-21 ... with 1,275 career kills, Stephens has already risen to No. 3 on UAA's career list and needs 117 more to catch Katelynn Zanders (1,392, 2012-15) for No. 2 ... on UAA's other career lists, she currently ranks 3rd in kps (3.70), 7th in attack percentage (.286), 9th in block assists (256), 13th in total blocks (273) and 15th in victories (67) ... a star in the classroom as well, Stephens was voted CoSIDA Academic All-District 8 in 2019 with her GNAC-best 4.00 GPA in accounting.
 
THINK FLOYD: Another preseason All-GNAC pick, Jr. S Ellen Floyd captured GNAC Defensive Player of the Week honors for her effort in Hawaii and was an all-tournament pick at the Seawolf Invitational ... the 2019 All-GNAC selection and AVCA honorable mention All-American leads the GNAC with 0.52 aces per set (31st nationally) and ranks 3rd with 9.91 assists per set, along with 16th in digs per set (2.97) – all while piloting an offense that has outhit its opponents .239 to .148 ... she has produced double-digit digs in 12 of 19 outings, finishing with 17 digs and tying her career high with 7 kills in the win over Chaminade, and tallying 52 assists and 19 digs in the win over Biola ... with another season remaining, Floyd is on pace to break UAA's all-time assists and aces records, already standing 4th with 3,330 assists and 2nd with 150 aces (needs 12 to tie Jen Szczerbinski, 162 aces, 1988-92) ... her other career ranks stand at 3rd in assists average (9.46 aps), 3rd in aces per set (0.430) and 14th in victories (69).
 
'WOLF BITES: Sr. MB Vera Pluharova continued her fine play last week with numbers of 1.63 blocks and 1.75 kills per set on .480 hitting, along with the match-point ace against CWU, capturing the third GNAC Defensive Player of the Week honor of her career ... the 4-year starter is virtually tied for the GNAC lead with her .351 attack pct., and is 13th with 0.97 blocks per set ... Pluharova ranks 5th on UAA's career list in blocks per set (1.10), plus 3rd in block assists (353), 6th in total blocks (400), 9th in attack pct. (.276) and 11th in victories (76) ... the Czech has hit .700 or better in three matches this year, breaking the 20-year-old school record for attack percentage with a .917 (career-high-tying 11 kills, no errors, 12 attacks) performance in the second match of the year at Hawaii Pacific ... Jr. L Talia Leauanae is one of four Seawolves with three-plus years of experience in Green & Gold, and she has produced well with 3.51 digs per set (12th in GNAC) and 0.48 aces per set (4th in GNAC) ... the Maui native has three matches with 20-plus digs this year, and last week she had her most assists in back-to-back contests with a career-high 9 against CWU and 6 against NNU ... Leauanae ranks 15th on UAA's career list with 3.20 digs per set ... So. OH Lisa Jaunet has raised her level of play in the GNAC thus far, producing 3.04 kills per set (10th in the leauge) on .299 hitting (9th in the league) in the last seven matches ... the St. Denis, France, native and State College of Florida transfer had her second-most kills (15) against Saint Martin's and posted consecutive career-best hitting percentages of .476 at Western Oregon, .500 against Seattle Pacific and .500 at Simon Fraser ... Jaunet ranks 17th in the overall GNAC stats with 2.64 kills per set ... Fr. OH Mahala Kaapuni has also come on strong in GNAC play, ranking 13th in attack pct. (.278) in league matches ... the Big Island product has notched at least six kills in each GNAC contest, including season highs of 12 at Saint Martin's and 13 at Simon Fraser.
 
GREEN MACHINE: Having led UAA to an unprecedented 13 straight winning seasons, UAA head coach Chris Green (281-106, .726) has established himself as the most successful coach in program history and one of the top mentors in the NCAA Div. II ranks, earning his fifth GNAC Coach of the Year award in 2019 ('09, '13, '15, '16) ... the 2016 AVCA D-II National Coach of the Year and 3-time AVCA D-II West Region Coach of the Year (2009, '15, '16), Green has led UAA to NCAA Tournament berths in eight of the last 10 full seasons, capturing No. 1 seeds in 2015 and 2016, and piloting the Seawolves to the national title match in 2016 ... in the 28 years before Green's arrival, the Seawolves made just two NCAA appearances ... UAA has won at a .776 clip (190-55) since the start of the 2013 campaign, including .837 (118-23) in league play ... Green's UAA teams have produced eight All-Americans, five GNAC Players of the Year, six GNAC Newcomers of the Year and five GNAC Freshmen of the Year ... hired in Feb. 2008 as the sixth coach in UAA Volleyball history, Green spent the previous nine seasons (1999-07) as the head coach at Western Nebraska Community College, where he built a powerhouse program ... among his list of accomplishments at WNCC were a 453-55 record, the 2007 NJCAA Div. I national championship, 2006 NJCAA runner-up, and four straight 'Final 4' berths ...  the Cougars finished in the top 10 at the national tournament in all of Green's seasons, producing a total of 10 first-team and six second-team All-America certificates ... in 2011, he was inducted into the NJCAA Hall of Fame.
 
2021 Individual Honors
ELLEN FLOYD
Seawolf Invitational All-Tournament Team
GNAC Defensive Player of the Week, Aug. 23-29
Preseason All-GNAC Team
EVE STEPHENS
GNAC Offensive Player of the Week, Oct. 4-10
Nanook Classic All-Tournament Team
Seawolf Invitational All-Tournament Team
GNAC Offensive Player of the Week, Aug. 23-29
Preseason All-GNAC Team
GNAC Preseason Player of the Year
VERA PLUHAROVA
GNAC Defensive Player of the Week, Oct. 4-10
 
UAA School Records Broken/Tied in 2021
INDIVIDUAL
Match
Best Attack Pct. (min. 11 attacks) — .917 [11-0-12] by Vera Pluharova at Hawaii Pacific, Aug. 28 (old record: .909 [10-0-11] by Janelle Veith vs Seattle, 10/20/01)
TEAM
Match
Fewest Blocks Allowed — 0 vs Northwest Nazarene, Oct. 9 (breaks or ties unresearched record)
MISC.
Most Consecutive Wins vs Opponent — 26 vs Saint Martin's, 2008-current