THIS WEEK IN ALASKA ANCHORAGE VOLLEYBALL...
 
Saturday, Nov. 13 – Patty Center – Fairbanks, Alaska – 2 pm AST
Alaska Anchorage (17-10, 10-5 GNAC) at Alaska Fairbanks (15-12, 8-7 GNAC)
 
LIVE VIDEO: Free at youtube.com/user/TheAlaskaNanooks
 
LIVE STATS: alaskananooks.com/sidearmstats/wvball/summary
 
SOCIAL MEDIA: Check the @UAAVolleyball Twitter feed for in-match updates
 
UAA PROBABLE STARTERS (2021 stats)
S—Ellen Floyd, 5-10, Jr. (10.04 aps, 0.85 kps, .107 att%, 3.06 dps, 0.55 bps, 0.48 ace/set)
RS—Eve Stephens, 6-1, Jr. (3.86 kps, .252 att%, 2.34 dps, 0.76 bps, 0.38 ace/set)
OH—Lisa Jaunet, 5-10, So. (2.47 kps, .193 att%)
MB—Vera Pluharova, 6-2, Sr. (1.83 kps, .325 att%, 1.08 bps)
MB—Akor Maywin, 6-2, Jr. (1.30 kps, .296 att%, 0.93 bps)
DS—Reilly Plumhoff, 5-5, Fr. (1.93 dps, 0.56 aps, 0.21 ace/set)
L—Talia Leauanae, 5-8, Jr. (3.85 dps, 0.49 ace/set, 0.59 aps)
 
PLAYOFF RACE INTENSIFIES: Ranked No. 8 in the latest NCAA Div. II West Region poll with three matches remaining, the Seawolves face a crucial test in their final road match of the 2021 regular season Saturday at Alaska Fairbanks ... the top eight teams in the region make the NCAA West Regional Championships, with the playoff field announced Nov. 22.
 
THE SERIES...
vs UAF: UAA leads 76-37 overall, 32-24 in Fairbanks
Last: UAA 3-0 (10/16/21 at UAA) / Streak: UAA 3
Notes: UAA won the last two meetings in Fairbanks, played during last spring's 'pandemic' season ... the home team has won nine of the last 10 meetings ... UAA is looking for its first season sweep of UAF since 2017 ... six of the last 10 meetings have been 4- or 5-setters ... UAA leads 28-11 in GNAC meetings (since 2001) and 23-6 under head coach Chris Green (since 2008) ... teams have played at least twice every season since 1980.
 
SCOUTING THE NANOOKS: Alaska Fairbanks has fallen out of the playoff race after four straight losses Oct. 16-28, but the Nanooks have bounced back to win two of their last three, including an impressive 3-1 victory over Simon Fraser on Oct. 30 ... the balanced Nanooks feature five players averaging over 2.00 kills per set, including RS AveRee Reynolds (2.61 kps, .174 att%) and OH Lahra Weber (2.25 kps, .118 att%, 2.13 dps).
 
ONE-FOR-THREE: The Seawolves started their tough four-match road swing with a win Thursday at Northwest Nazarene, before falling Saturday and Monday at fellow regionally ranked teams Central Washington and Western Washington ... at NNU, Jr. RS Eve Stephens delivered 20 kills and 16 digs, and Jr. S Ellen Floyd had 39 assists, 18 digs and a career-high-tying 7 kills to eke out a 12-25, 28-26, 25-18, 26-24 win ... Jr. L Talia Leauanae added 18 digs as seven different Seawolves accounted for at least 5 kills ... at CWU, Stephens had 9 kills but the Wildcats pounded out .364 hitting in running their home win streak to 10 matches with a 26-24, 25-13, 25-16 decision ... on Monday, Stephens had 18 kills and 16 digs but the Seawolves couldn't capitalize on late 3rd-set lead in falling 25-21, 23-25, 28-26, 25-22 to the 16th-ranked Vikings ... Floyd posted her second-most assists this year with 49, while tying her career high with 21 digs, and UAA got career-best efforts from Fr. OH/DS Nicole Blue (16 digs) and Jr. MB Akor Maywin (11 kills/7 blocks) despite the loss.
 
TEAM NOTES: UAA leads the GNAC statistics with 2.04 aces per set (26th nationally) and a .156 opponent attack pct., while ranking 3rd in attack pct. (.215) ... 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' 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 ...  the Seawolves are 79-19 (.806) at the Alaska Airlines Center since its opening in Sept. 2014 and 126-31 (.803) at home since 2009; UAA has never lost three straight 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 has extended another program-best streak with its 12th straight winning conference record and is aiming for its 12th straight and top-4 GNAC finish ... the Seawolves are 21-17 against AVCA Top 25 teams since 2014 and 31-44 overall vs. ranked opponents under Green; prior to Green's arrival, UAA had lost 32 straight to ranked foes.
 
STEPHENS ON POINT: In her fourth season in Green & Gold, Jr. RS Eve Stephens has continued to rack up numbers at a record-setting pace ... the GNAC Preseason Player of the Year has earned 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 ranks 2nd in the GNAC with 4.64 points per set (13th nationally) and 3.86 kills per set (23rd nationally), along with league ranks of 5th in aces per set (0.38) and 14th in hitting pct. (.252) ... the Palmer (Colony HS) product has 10 double-doubles this year and 28 for her career after leading the GNAC in both kills and points per set in 2019 and 2020-21 ... with 1,376 career kills, Stephens needs 16 more to catch Katelynn Zanders (1,392, 2012-15) for No. 2 on the Seawolves' all-time list ... on UAA's other career lists, she ranks 3rd in kps (3.72), 8th in attack percentage (.278), 9th in block assists (267), 13th in total blocks (284) and 15th in victories (70) ... a star in the classroom as well, the accounting major was voted CoSIDA Academic All-District 8 in 2019 and earned her third straight Academic All-GNAC honor this year, producing a 3.67 overall GPA.
 
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 stands 3rd in the GNAC with 10.04 assists per set, along with ranks of 2nd in aces per set (0.48) and 16th in digs per set (3.06) – all while piloting an offense that has outhit its opponents .215 to .156 ... she has produced double-digit digs in 17 of 27 outings, tying career highs last week with 7 kills at NNU and 21 digs at WWU; she also had 52 assists and 19 digs in the win over regionally ranked Biola ... with another season remaining, Floyd is on pace to break UAA's all-time assists and aces records, already standing 4th with 3,580 assists and 2nd with 160 aces (needs two to tie Jen Szczerbinski, 1988-92) ... her other career ranks stand at 3rd in assists average (9.52 aps), 3rd in aces per set (0.426) and 13th in victories (72) ... a candidate for CoSIDA Academic All-District honors, Floyd also earned her third straight GNAC All-Academic nod this year with a UAA-best 3.86 overall GPA in accounting.
 
'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 4th in the GNAC with a .325 attack pct. and is 9th with 1.08 blocks per set ... Pluharova ranks 5th on UAA's career list in blocks per set (1.11), plus 2nd in block assists (382), 4th in total blocks (430), 9th in attack pct. (.276) and 9th in victories (78) ... 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 3.85 digs per set (10th in GNAC) and a league-best 0.49 aces per set (34th nationally); in league matches only, she is 4th with 4.32 dps ... the Maui native has six matches with 20-plus digs this year, with her 25 at MSUB and against WWU currently standing as the most in any GNAC 3-set match this year ... Leauanae last week became the 16th member of UAA's 1,000-digs club and ranks 11th on the program's career list with 3.33 digs per set ... So. OH Lisa Jaunet has raised her level of play since the start of GNAC play, producing 2.53 kills per set on .230 hitting in 15 league 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 18th in the overall GNAC stats with 2.47 kills per set ... Fr. OH Mahala Kaapuni has also come on strong in GNAC play, ranking 19th in kills (2.47 kps) in league matches ... the Big Island product has notched at least six kills in 14 of 15 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 (284-111, .719) 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 .763 clip (193-60) since the start of the 2013 campaign, including .812 (121-28) 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
MAKANA ELENEKI
GNAC All-Academic Team
ELLEN FLOYD
GNAC All-Academic Team
Seawolf Invitational All-Tournament Team
GNAC Defensive Player of the Week, Aug. 23-29
Preseason All-GNAC Team
CEYNA KAHRAMA
GNAC All-Academic Team
TALIA LEAUANAE
GNAC All-Academic Team
VERA PLUHAROVA
GNAC All-Academic Team
GNAC Defensive Player of the Week, Oct. 4-10
REILLY PLUMHOFF
GNAC All-Academic Team
EVE STEPHENS
GNAC All-Academic Team
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
 
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
Most Consecutive Winning Seasons — 14 (extends record)
Most Consecutive Winning Conference Seasons — 12 (extends record)