THIS WEEK IN ALASKA ANCHORAGE VOLLEYBALL...

Fri., Mar. 26 — 7 pm ADT — Seawolf Sports Complex — Anchorage, Alaska
Alaska Fairbanks (3-2) at Alaska Anchorage (3-0)
&
Sat., Mar. 27 — 1 pm ADT — Seawolf Sports Complex — Anchorage, Alaska
Alaska Fairbanks at Alaska Anchorage

NO ADMITTANCE: Due to COVID-19 protocols, there will be no fan admittance for either match.

LIVE VIDEO: Friday at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKycMXrZFic
                       Saturday at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H08kWJegbE
                       (no audio commentary for either match)

LIVE STATS: https://goseawolves.com/sidearmstats/wvball/summary

UAA PROBABLE STARTERS (2020-21 stats)
S—Ellen Floyd, 5-10, Jr. (9.00 aps, 0.75 kps, .200 att%, 2.83 dps)
RS—Eve Stephens, 6-1, Jr. (4.42 kps, .321 att%, 2.58 dps, 0.67 bps, 0.50 ace/set)
MB—Mahala Kaapuni, 5-9, Fr. (1.33 kps, .243 att%, 0.67 bps)
MB—Vera Pluharova, 6-2, Sr. (2.08 kps, .207 att%, 0.75 bps)
OH—Nicole Blue, 5-9, Fr. (2.92 kps, .258 att%, 0.83 dps, 0.67 ace/set)
DS—Reilly Plumhoff, 5-5, Fr. (1.42 dps, 0.75 ace/set)
L—Talia Leauanae, 5-8, Jr. (3.00 dps)

THE SERIES vs. UAF: UAA leads 72-36 overall, 41-12 in Anchorage
Streak: UAA 1
Last: UAA 3-2 (10-22-19 at UAA)
Notes: This weekend's matches will be the first non-conference contests between UAA and UAF since Sept. 30, 2000, during both programs' final year in the Pac West Conference ... teams have split the last four meetings, with each team defending homecourt ... UAA has won nine straight in Anchorage, with UAF's last victory coming by a 3-1 count on Sept. 18, 2010 … this will mark the first meeting at the Seawolf Sports Complex since a 3-1 UAA win on Nov. 9, 2013 ... UAA leads 19-5 under head coach Chris Green (since 2008) ... teams have played at least twice every season since 1980.

STRONG START: The Seawolves got off to a good start Mar. 19-20 with three wins in a 24-hour period in Washington, beating Saint Martin's in the opener and sweeping a Saturday doubleheader from Seattle Pacific ... in the first match, Fr. OH Nicole Blue debuted with 16 kills on .343 hitting and Jr. RS Eve Stephens had 13 kills, 11 digs and 4 blocks to power a 25-23, 25-16, 27-29, 25-14 win over the Saints ... Sr. MB Vera Pluharova added 10 kills (one shy of her career high) and 5 block assists as UAA extended its program record to 25 straight wins over the Saints ... on Saturday, the Seawolves used 14 kills on .520 hitting from Stephens and 8 kills on .333 hitting from So. OH Hannah Pembroke to earn a 25-18, 25-20, 25-19 sweep of the Falcons ... the finale was far more dramatic, with Stephens's career-high 26 kills and 13 digs leading to a 25-17, 21-25, 25-14, 10-25, 16-14 victory ... Blue added 11 kills, 3 aces and 7 digs, while Jr. S Ellen Floyd tallied 43 assists and 18 digs to help UAA extend its road winning streak to 10 against SPU.

STEPHENS RECOGNIZED: Jr. RS Eve Stephens started her third campaign in Green & Gold by earning Great Northwest Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors for her play in Washington ... the two-time All-GNAC performer averaged 4.42 kills per set on .321 hitting (53 kills-9 errors-137 attacks), 2.58 digs per set, 0.67 blocks per set and 0.5 aces per set in the three matches, including a pair of double-doubles ... her 3 aces in each SPU match also tied a career high, while her 26 kills in the weekend finale were the most for a Seawolf since Nov. 10, 2016 (Leah Swiss vs. NNU).

TEAM NOTES: The Seawolves are 71-16 (.816) at the Alaska Airlines Center since its opening in Sept. 2014 and 117-27 (.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 39 years and seven times in 12 years under Chris Green ... the Seawolves earned their 12th straight winning season in 2019, extending the program record that began with Green's arrival at UAA in 2008 ... UAA also extended program-best streaks of 11 straight winning conference records and top-4 GNAC finishes ... the Seawolves are 20-14 against AVCA Top 25 teams since 2014 and 30-41 overall vs. ranked opponents under Green; prior to Green's arrival, UAA had lost 32 straight to ranked foes.

ROCKIN' EVE: Jr. RS Eve Stephens followed her GNAC Freshman of the Year campaign by claiming her second straight unanimous All-GNAC award and capturing AVCA Second Team All-America honors in 2019 ... also an All-West Region selection by by coaches and sports information directors, Stephens's other honors included all-tournament at the NCAA West Regional Championships, the D2 West Region Showcase and the Seawolf Invitational, and GNAC Offensive Player of the Week for Sept. 16-22 ... in the GNAC stats, the former Colony High School star led the way in kills per set (3.90) and points per set (4.62), along with ranks of 14th in blocking (0.90 bps) and 12th in attack pct. (.260) ... in the NCAA Div. II national stats, she finished 21st in points (6th among underclassmen) and 33rd in kills ... playing all rotations after being subbed on the back row as a freshman, Stephens recorded a team-high 12 double-doubles, averaging 2.27 dps ... on the Seawolves' single-season lists, her 425 kills ranked 8th all-time, while her 3.90 kps ranked 7th ... on UAA's career lists, the Palmer native now stands 16th in total kills (821), 4th in kps (3.59) and 7th in attack percentage (.290)  ... 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.

THE ELLEN SHOW: Jr. S Ellen Floyd engineered UAA's offensive improvement in 2019 to the reward of being tabbed First Team All-GNAC and AVCA honorable mention All-America ... in the GNAC stats, Floyd ranked 2nd with 10.14 assists per set and 5th with 0.42 aces per set, bettering her assist average to 10.65 aps in GNAC matches ... having started the year with all-tournament honors at both the Seawolf Invitational and D2 West Region Showcase, the Florida native added GNAC Offensive and AVCA Sports Imports Div. II National Player of the Week honors for her play in the wins at Western Washington and Simon Fraser ... at the midpoint of her career, Floyd is on pace to break UAA's all-time assists record, already standing 7th with 2,180 assists ... she is 4th in Seawolf history in terms of career assists average at 9.28 aps, while 0.37 aces per set rank 5th on that list.

MORE 'WOLF BITES: Sr. MB Vera Pluharova continued her career-long improvement in 2019 and enters her fourth season as one of the top middle blockers in the West Region ... in her second year as a starter, Pluharova ranked 3rd in the GNAC and 21st nationally with 1.25 blocks per set ... the Czech recorded at least 6 kills on .300 hitting in seven matches, including 9 kills (.438) in the road sweep of Concordia and a career-high 11 kills (.474) in the 5-set win over UAF ... Pluharova ranks 5th on UAA's career list in blocks per set (1.14), plus 8th in block assists (257) and 12th in total blocks (284) ... So. OH Hannah Pembroke was UAA's 4th-leading kills producer with 1.55 kps as a true freshman in 2019 ... Pembroke made huge strides during the second half of her rookie campaign, improving her numbers to 1.76 kps on .193 hitting in league matches ...  the Seawolves are well stocked at the libero and DS positions again in 2020-21, with Jr. Talia Leauanae joined by redshirt freshmen and local products Reilly Plumhoff and Julia Fetko ... Leauanae ranked 12th in the GNAC with 3.68 digs per set in 2019, with efforts of 28 digs (career high) in the loss to Simon Fraser, 17 digs in the home upset of Western Washington, 24 in the win over UAF and 21 in the road win at NNU.

GREEN MACHINE: Having led UAA to an unprecedented 11 straight winning seasons, UAA head coach Chris Green (259-97, .728) 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 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 two NCAAs ... UAA has won at a .782 clip (165-46) since the start of the 2013 campaign, including .828 (111-23) 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.

2020-21 INDIVIDUAL HONORS
EVE STEPHENS
GNAC Offensive Player of the Week, Mar. 15-21