THIS WEEK IN ALASKA ANCHORAGE VOLLEYBALL...
 
Fri., Apr. 16 — 7 pm ADT — Patty Center — Fairbanks, Alaska
Alaska Anchorage (7-1) at Alaska Fairbanks (5-4)
&
Sat., Apr. 17 — 1 pm ADT — Patty Center — Fairbanks, Alaska
Alaska Anchorage at Alaska Fairbanks

LIVE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM0zSWh6A5uG-dFIPZ2BHqA
 
LIVE STATS: https://alaskananooks.com/sidearmstats/wvball/summary
 
SOCIAL MEDIA: Check the @UAAVolleyball Twitter feed for in-match updates
 
NO ADMITTANCE: Due to COVID-19 protocols, there will be no fan admittance for either match.
 
UAA PROBABLE STARTERS (2020-21 stats)
S—Ellen Floyd, 5-10, Jr. (9.32 aps, 0.87 kps, .160 att%, 3.03 dps)
RS—Eve Stephens, 6-1, Jr. (4.32 kps, .301 att%, 2.42 dps, 0.65 bps, 0.52 ace/set)
MB—Mahala Kaapuni, 5-9, Fr. (1.22 kps, .187 att%, 0.70 bps)
MB—Vera Pluharova, 6-2, Sr. (1.77 kps, .209 att%, 1.00 bps)
OH—Nicole Blue, 5-9, Fr. (2.87 kps, .237 att%, 1.06 dps, 0.32 bps, 0.32 ace/set)
DS—Reilly Plumhoff, 5-5, Fr. (1.58 dps, 0.77 aps, 0.42 ace/set)
L—Talia Leauanae, 5-8, Jr. (3.68 dps, 0.55 aps)
 
THE SERIES vs. UAF: UAA leads 73-37 overall, 30-24 in Fairbanks
Streak: UAF 1
Last: UAF 3-2 (3-27-21 at UAA)
Notes: UAF has won the last two meetings in Fairbanks, including a 3-1 decision in 2019 ... UAA won a series-best nine straight road matches from 2009-17 ... UAA leads 20-6 under head coach Chris Green (since 2008) ... teams have played at least twice every season since 1980.
 
SCOUTING REPORT: Alaska Fairbanks has played just one match since handing the Seawolves a 5-set loss on Mar. 27, losing in three sets at Northwest Nazarene on Apr. 2 ... the Nanooks (5-4) are led by veteran pin hitters Lahra Weber (2.50 kps, .160 att%, 2.73 dps) and AveRee Reynolds (2.43 kps, .139 att%, 0.73 bps).
 
EXCELLENCE IN E-BURG: The Seawolves are coming off a 3-0 weekend Apr. 10-11, earning a three-set neutral-court victory over Western Oregon and a pair of four-set wins over host Central Washington in Ellensburg ... in the 25-13, 31-29, 25-16 win over WOU, Jr. RS Eve Stephens had 12 kills on .333 hitting and Jr. S Ellen Floyd had 24 assists, 5 kills, 4 aces and 7 digs in the sweep ... the first CWU match featured a 22-kill effort from Stephens, while So. OH Hannah Pembroke and Fr. OH Nicole Blue notched 8 kills apiece in a 22-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-14 victory ... Floyd had 44 assists, 3 kills and 16 digs, while Jr. L Talia Leauanae tallied 16 digs and a career-high 3 aces to help UAA overcome its first first-set loss this season ... in the finale, Stephens had 21 kills and a career-high 17 digs and Leauanae's 31 digs were the most for a Seawolf since 2017 as UAA fought off five CWU set points in the first frame and went on to a 31-29, 25-23, 20-25, 25-18 victory ... Blue had 14 kills, Sr. MB Vera Pluharova added 8 kills on .412 hitting and 5 blocks, and Floyd had a season-best 49 assists.
 
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: The Seawolves have picked up five of a possible six GNAC Player of the Week honors in their three weeks of play after juniors Eve Stephens and Talia Leauanae picked up this week's offensive and defensive awards, respectively ... Fr. OH Nicole Blue and Sr. MB Vera Pluharova earned the offensive and defensive awards, respectively, for their play against UAF, Mar. 26-27 ... a true freshman from Cerritos, Calif., Blue totaled 24 kills (3.00 kps) on team-best .404 hitting to help the Seawolves earn their weekend split, while Pluharova averaged 1.75 blocks per set, with her 11 total blocks on Friday matching the Seawolves' most since Nov. 2018 ... Stephens started her third campaign in Green & Gold by earning GNAC Offensive Player of the Week honors for her play in Washington, Mar. 19-20 ... 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: UAA has out-hit its opponent in all eight matches thus far ... the Seawolves need just one more win to clinch their 13th consecutive winning season, which would extend the program record that began with Chris Green's arrival at UAA in 2008 ... the Seawolves are 71-16 (.816) at the Alaska Airlines Center since its opening in Sept. 2014 and 118-28 (.808) 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 will also enter next season with 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 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), while 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 UAA's career lists, the Palmer native now stands 13th in total kills (902), 4th in kps (3.64) 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 2,361 assists ... she is 4th in Seawolf history in terms of both career assists average (9.30 aps) and aces per set (0.390) aces per set.
 
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 (1.15), plus 8th in block assists (276) and 11th in total blocks (306); needs one more to reach top 10) ... 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 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 12 straight winning seasons, UAA head coach Chris Green (263-98, .729) 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 .785 clip (172-47) 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.