THIS WEEK IN ALASKA ANCHORAGE VOLLEYBALL...
 
Thursday, Oct. 28 – Alaska Airlines Center – Anchorage, Alaska – 7 pm ADT
Simon Fraser (14-4, 8-3 GNAC) at Alaska Anchorage (16-6, 9-1 GNAC)
&
Saturday, Oct. 30 – Alaska Airlines Center – Anchorage, Alaska – 7 pm ADT
No. 19 Western Washington (13-4, 9-1 GNAC [10/28 @UAF]) at Alaska Anchorage
 
LIVE VIDEO: Free on YouTube ... links also available at the UAA Volleyball schedule page
 
LIVE STATS: goseawolves.com/sidearmstats/wvball/summary
 
SOCIAL MEDIA: Check the @UAAVolleyball Twitter feed for in-match updates
 
TICKETS: GoSeawolves.com (masks required for attendance)
 
UAA PROBABLE STARTERS (2021 stats)
S—Ellen Floyd, 5-10, Jr. (10.15 aps, 0.86 kps, .103 att%, 2.95 dps, 0.51 bps, 0.49 ace/set)
RS—Eve Stephens, 6-1, Jr. (3.92 kps, .273 att%, 2.26 dps, 0.77 bps, 0.45 ace/set)
OH—Lisa Jaunet, 5-10, So. (2.65 kps, .212 att%)
MB—Vera Pluharova, 6-2, Sr. (1.92 kps, .348 att%, 1.05 bps)
MB—Akor Maywin, 6-2, Jr. (1.34 kps, .335 att%, 0.92 bps)
DS—Makana Eleneki, 5-6, Fr. (0.82 dps)
L—Talia Leauanae, 5-8, Jr. (3.74 dps, 0.50 ace/set, 0.62 aps)
 
THE SERIES...
vs SFU: UAA leads 19-2 overall, 9-1 in Anchorage
Last: UAA 3-1 (10/2/21 at SFU) / Streak: UAA 2
Notes: The visiting team has won the last three matches, including a 3-2 SFU victory in the last meeting at the Alaska Airlines Center in 2019 ... UAA won the first 15 matches in series history ... six of the last eight meetings have gone four or five sets ... SFU joined the GNAC in 2010.
 
vs WWU: WWU leads 36-19 overall, 20-10 in Anchorage
Last: UAA 3-2 (11/14/19 at WWU) / Streak: UAA 2
Notes: UAA swept the 2019 season series for the first time since 2011 and just the third time since the GNAC started in 2001 ... the 2019 wins snapped a 5-match losing skid against WWU ... the last eight matches have all gone four or five sets, including UAA's NCAA Regional finals victory in 2016 and WWU's NCAA First Round victory in 2017 ... there have been six 5-setters and only one sweep among the last 16 meetings ... the road team has won 12 of the last 18 meetings ... the Seawolves are 12-15 against WWU under Chris Green (since 2008) ... WWU won 17 straight from 2001-08 … WWU leads 27-11 in GNAC meetings … teams have met every year since 2000 …  series started in 1980.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS: Simon Fraser has been unstoppable since losing at home Oct. 2 to UAA, running off six straight victories, including four via sweep ... the NCAA's lone Canadian program is led by Fr. OH Brooke Dexter (GNAC-high 4.16 kps, .300 att%, 2.61 dps, 0.55 bps) and Sr. S Julia Tays (GNAC-high 11.14 aps) ... after an early GNAC upset at Central Washington, 19th-ranked Western Washington has caught UAA for the league lead as it hunts a fourth straight title ... winners of eight straight as they prepare to face UAF on Thursday, the Vikings are led by So. OH Calley Heilborn (3.13 kps, .191 att%, 4.07 dps, 0.63 bps), Jr. MB Olivia Fairchild (2.51 kps, GNAC-best .351 att%, 1.40 bps) and So. S Malia Aleaga (10.02 aps).
 
STREAKS STOPPED WITH ROAD SPLIT: The Seawolves saw several long streaks come to an end last week as they split a pair of road matches, losing 25-22, 25-21, 25-22 at Seattle Pacific and winning 25-18, 27-25, 25-19 at Montana State Billings ... on Thursday, Jr. RS Eve Stephens had a match-high 14 kills but UAA saw its 8-0 GNAC start come to an end, along with its overall 14-match GNAC win streak – the second-longest in program history ... Jr. S Ellen Floyd finished with 33 assists as UAA also lost strings of 10 straight wins in Seattle and 29 straight GNAC matches without being swept ... on Saturday, Stephens had 12 kills, Sr. MB Vera Pluharova tied her career high with 11 kills, and Jr. L Talia Leauanae made a UAA season-high 25 digs as the Seawolves swept the match and season series from MSUB ... Floyd finished with 42 assists and 12 digs, while Fr. DS Makana Eleneki tallied career-highs of 7 digs and 2 aces.
 
TEAM NOTES: Prior to falling out by two spots in this week's poll, UAA returned to the NCAA Div. II national poll Oct. 11 & 18 for the first time since Sept. 25, 2017, which was the last of a program-record 32 consecutive weeks in the rankings ... the Seawolves' 14-match GNAC winning streak (11/7/19 to 10/16/21) was the program's second-longest, trailing only the 22 straight from Oct. 17, 2015 to Oct. 20, 2016 ... the eight straight GNAC wins in one season were 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 2.15 aces per set (15th nationally), a .236 attack percentage and a .143 opponent attack pct. ... the Seawolves have secured their 14th consecutive winning season, extending the program record that began with Chris Green's arrival at UAA in 2008 ... the Seawolves are 79-17 (.823) at the Alaska Airlines Center since its opening in Sept. 2014 and 126-29 (.813) 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.
 
STEPHENS ON POINT: Jr. RS Eve Stephens has lived up to her GNAC Preseason Player of the Year billing, earning two GNAC offensive player-of-the-week accolades, along 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 leads the GNAC with 4.78 points per set (11th nationally), along with league ranks of 3rd in kills per set (3.92), 4th in aces per set (0.45) and 11th in hitting pct. (.273) ... 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 1,311 career kills, Stephens has already risen to No. 3 on UAA's career list and needs 81 more to catch Katelynn Zanders (1,392, 2012-15) for No. 2 ... on UAA's other career lists, she currently ranks 3rd in kps (3.69), 8th in attack percentage (.285), 9th in block assists (262), 13th in total blocks (279) and 15th in victories (69) ... a star in the classroom as well, the accounting major was voted CoSIDA Academic All-District 8 in 2019 and will earn her third straight Academic All-GNAC honor this year.
 
THINK FLOYD: Another preseason All-GNAC pick, Jr. S Ellen Floyd started the season with 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 rose to 2nd in the GNAC with 10.15 assists per set after dishing an impressive 75 in just six sets last week ... Floyd also ranks 3rd in the GNAC with 0.49 aces per set and 16th in digs per set (2.95) – all while piloting an offense that has outhit its opponents .236 to .143 ... she has produced double-digit digs in 14 of 22 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 3,386 assists and 2nd with 152 aces (needs 10 to tie Jen Szczerbinski, 162 aces, 1988-92) ... her other career ranks stand at 3rd in assists average (9.52 aps), 3rd in aces per set (0.425) and t-13th in victories (71).
 
'WOLF BITES: Following her GNAC Defensive Player of the Week performance against Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene, Sr. MB Vera Pluharova has continued her fine play by tallying 9 kills on .571 hitting against UAF, tying her career high with 9 block assists at SPU, and tying another career best with 11 kills on .474 hitting at MSUB ... the 4-year starter ranks 2nd in the GNAC with a .348 attack pct. and is 8th with 1.05 blocks per set ... Pluharova ranks 5th on UAA's career list in blocks per set (1.11), plus 2nd in block assists (368), t-5th in total blocks (415), 9th in attack pct. (.279) and t-9th in victories (77) ... 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 3.74 digs per set (10th in GNAC) and a league-best 0.52 aces per set (39th nationally); in league matches only, she is 2nd with 4.31 dps ... the Maui native has four matches with 20-plus digs this year, with her 25 at MSUB currently standing as the most in any GNAC match this year ... Leauanae ranks 15th on UAA's career list with 3.27 digs per set ... So. OH Lisa Jaunet has raised her level of play in the GNAC thus far, producing 2.97 kills per set (9th in the leauge) on .289 hitting (8th in the league) ... 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 18th in the overall GNAC stats with 2.65 kills per set ... Fr. OH Mahala Kaapuni has also come on strong in GNAC play, ranking 18th in attack pct. (.242) and 19th in kills (2.49 kps) in league matches ... the Big Island product has notched at least six kills in nine of 10 GNAC contests, including season highs of 12 at Saint Martin's and 13 at Simon Fraser.
 
GREEN MACHINE: Having led UAA to an unprecedented 14 straight winning seasons, UAA head coach Chris Green (283-107, .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 .774 clip (192-56) since the start of the 2013 campaign, including .833 (120-24) 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