THIS WEEK IN ALASKA ANCHORAGE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL...
 
Thur., Jan. 20 - Alaska Airlines Center - Anchorage, Alaska - 7 pm AST
#11/13 Western Washington (10-1, 2-1 GNAC) at #5/8 Alaska Anchorage (10-2, 3-1 GNAC)
 
LIVE VIDEO: Free at youtube.com/c/UAASeawolves
LIVE STATS: goseawolves.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary
SOCIAL MEDIA: Check the @UAAWBB Twitter feed for in-game updates.
TICKETS: goseawolves.com
 
UAA PROBABLE STARTERS (2021-22 stats)
G—Nicole Pinckney, 5-5, Jr. (9.9 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 3.8 apg, 1.3 spg, .357 3FG)
G—Jahnna Hajdukovich, 5-8, Jr. (8.5 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 1.5 apg, .373 3FG)
F—Sala Langi, 5-9, Sr. (8.4 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 2.3 apg, 1.7 spg, .735 FT)
F—Jazzpher Evans, 5-6, Fr. (6.8 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 1.6 apg, .444 3FG)
F—Tennae Voliva, 6-0, Sr. (9.6 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 2.0 apg, 2.3 spg, .447 FG, .825 FT)
 
SOMETHING'S GOT TO GIVE: A pair of nationally ranked teams will try to avoid a two-game losing streak as Western Washington (No. 11 WBCA/No. 13 D2SIDA) and Alaska Anchorage (No. 5 WBCA/No. 8 D2SIDA) meet Thursday night at the Alaska Airlines Center ... this is the first of two scheduled meetings between the top two teams in the 2021-22 Great Northwest Athletic Conference preseason poll ... UAA had also been scheduled to host Simon Fraser on Saturday, but that contest has been postponed (no makeup date announced) due to health & safety protocols with the SFU program.
 
SCOUTING THE VIKINGS: Western Washington is coming off its first loss of the season, falling 76-68 at home to Central Washington last week ... the Vikings, who own big early-season wins over fellow playoff contenders Azusa Pacific and Cal State San Marcos, are led by Emma Duff (14.1 ppg, 7.7 rpg, 1.8 apg, 1.4 spg, .460 FG, .865 FT) and Mollie Olson (11.1 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 3.0 apg, .483 FG, .474 3FG).
 
THE SERIES...
vs WWU: UAA leads 28-24 overall, 13-10 in Anchorage
Streak: UAA 2
Last: UAA 89-68 (3/7/20, GNAC Tourney title game at SPU)
Notes: The last meeting was the final prepandemic game for both teams, which had been set to face each other the following week in the first round of the NCAA West Regional Championships ... UAA has won 10 of the last 11 contests, including an 83-76 final in the last game in Anchorage, Feb. 22, 2020 ... UAA has won seven straight in Anchorage, including a 6-0 mark at the Alaska Airlines Center ... teams have played 25 times since Jan. 2011, including five meetings in the GNAC Tournament finals (all UAA wins) and an NCAA 1st Round game in 2012 ... UAA leads 21-17 in GNAC regular-season meetings (since 2001-02) and 14-5 under head coach Ryan McCarthy ... WWU won the first seven meetings in series history, which began Feb. 13, 1997.
 
'JACKETS END LONG SEAWOLF STREAKS: The Seawolves took care of business with a 76-60 Saturday home win over Alaska Fairbanks, before seeing several long streaks come to an end with a 72-48 upset at the hands of Montana State Billings on Monday ... in the first game, Fr. G Jazzpher Evans matched her career high with 13 points and Sr. C Tennae Voliva had 10 points and tied career highs of 12 rebounds and 4 assists, helping UAA's pull away in the second half ... Jr. PG Nicole Pinckney had 9 points and a career-high 7 assists and Fr. G Malie Marfil added 7 points (3-3 FG) and 4 steals as UAA stretched its winning streak to 27 against the Nanooks ... on Monday, Voliva had 16 points (5-10 FG, 6-6 FT) but UAA committed a season-high 22 turnovers, suffering its worst defeat at the Alaska Airlines Center, which opened in the fall of 2014 ... the setback ended school-record win streaks of 33 straight at home and 41 straight over conference opponents in the regular season, and it was the Seawolves' most lopsided home loss since Jan. 17, 2013 (76-49 vs NW Nazarene at the UAA Sports Complex).
 
WINNING WAYS: UAA's 24-game win streak from Jan. 25, 2020 to Dec. 14, 2021 had been the longest in NCAA Div. II and finished two short of tying the school record set by the 2016-17 club ... the 12 straight road wins finished as the third-longest string in program history ... at 198-19 (.912), the Seawolves have the best winning percentage and fourth-most victories in NCAA Div. II since 2014-15, despite playing only three games in 2020-21 ... UAA is a combined 123-10 – including 56-5 on the road – in GNAC regular-season and tournament games over the last seven conference seasons (since Dec. 2014) ... UAA's Jan. 17 loss to MSU Billings ended school-record win streaks of 33 straight home games and 41 straight regular-season home games against league foes ... the Seawolves have gone a combined 201-17 (.922) in the last 15 seasons on its home courts, including 92-7 (.929) at the Alaska Airlines Center (since 2014-15) ... the 2019-20 Seawolves earned the program's fourth 30-win season in five years, starting with an NCAA Div. II-record 38 victories in 2015-16 ... UAA's run of six straight GNAC regular-season titles is the longest of any program – women's or men's – since the league was founded in 2001-02 ... UAA has recorded 25 wins for six straight seasons (excluding 2020-21) and has produced 16 20-win seasons in 44 years of program history ... the Seawolves have won 63 of their last 66 regular-season games against Div. II non-conference opponents ... UAA has posted 15 consecutive winning records and has qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 13 of the past 14 full seasons ... the Seawolves have won six of the 10 GNAC Tournament titles since the event started in 2011.
 
NIFTY NUMBERS: The Seawolves lead the GNAC stats in steals (12.8 spg), assists (17.1 apg), turnover margin (+7.7), offensive rebounds per game (14.6) and offensive rebound pct. (.381), and rank second in three other categories ... of 297 teams nationally, UAA ranks top 50 in eight categories, including top 15 in turnover margin (9th), assists (11th), turnovers forced (15th, 23.7), steals (15th) ... the Seawolves are attemping to finish top-10 nationally in steals for the eighth straight non-pandemic season in 2021-22, having led NCAA Div. II for four straight years from 2013-14 to 2016-17.
 
'WOLF BITES: A unanimous Preseason All-GNAC selection, Sr. F/C Tennae Voliva (t'NAY voh-LEE-vuh) has gotten off to a solid start with 9.6 ppg and GNAC ranks of 3rd in steals (2.3 spg, 88th nationally), 4th in FT% (.825, 81st nationally), 11th in blocks (0.7 bpg) and 13th in rebounding (6.0 rpg) ... on UAA's career lists, Voliva stands 8th in blocks (69), 12th in blocks per game (0.6), 15th in rebounds (538), 13th in games played (112), 18th in FG% (.484) and tied for 9th in victories, sporting a 100-12 career record in Green & Gold ... a three-time Academic All-GNAC honoree with a 3.88 in psychology, Voliva was a CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree as a junior in 2019-20 ... Sr. F Sala Langi has continued her under-the-radar solid play to begin her final season, ranking top-4 on the team in scoring (8.4 ppg), rebounding (3.3 rpg), assists (2.3 apg) and steals (1.7 spg, 10th in GNAC) ... the Seawolves' active career scoring leader with 721 points, Langi joined Voliva on this year's Preseason All-GNAC Team and trails her by just one game on the victories list with 99 ...  Jr. G Jahnna Hajdukovich ranks 6th in 3FG% (.373) and 5th in 3FGs per game (1.8) in the GNAC stats, tying for the second-most treys in Seawolf history with her 8 against UT Permian Basin ... the former Dimond High star now ranks in the top 15 in all UAA career 3FG categories, with 96 treys, 1.22 per game and a .353 3FG% ... Jr. PG Nicole Pinckney has taken her game to the next level in fifth season with the program ... the former Chugiak High star is 3rd in the GNAC with 3.8 assists per game (89th nationally), 2nd with a 2.4 assist-turnover ratio (12th nationally) and 7th in both 3FG% (.357) and 3FGs per game (1.7), draining 5 of 10 treys for a career-high 21 points in the win at NNU ... Pinckney was the Most Outstanding Player of the Nov. 19-20 Seawolf Hoops Classic, totaling 23 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists, 5 steals and just 2 turnovers in 52 minutes.
 
MASTER OF MAYHEM: In his 10th season at UAA and 11th as a head coach, Ryan McCarthy currently stands No. 3 among NCAA Div. II coaches in career winning percentage at .829 ... the winningest coach in UAA women's basketball history since coming north in 2012, McCarthy has led the Seawolf program to unprecedented heights, capturing six straight GNAC regular-season titles (five outright), four GNAC Tournament titles, seven straight NCAA Tournament berths, and ascending as high as No. 1 or No. 2 in the national rankings every season from 2014-15 through 2017-18 ... in 2019-20, McCarthy earned his fourth consecutive GNAC Coach of the Year honor and fifth in the last six seasons ... he was the WBCA NCAA Div. II West Region Coach of the Year three straight times from 2015-17 ... in 2016-17, the Anchorage native led UAA to its third straight top-2 regional seed and its second straight 30-win season (30-2), while recording the first 20-0 league record in GNAC history ... the previous season, McCarthy's crew set an NCAA Div. II record with 38 victories, advancing all the way to the 2016 National Title Game in Indianapolis ... his 2014-15 club claimed what was then the best winning percentage in program history with a 29-2 (.935) mark, sweeping both GNAC titles as well ... McCarthy led UAA to an improvement in overall wins (17, 19, 29, 38) his first four seasons and increased the Seawolves' GNAC victory total in each of his first five campaigns (11, 12, 17, 18, 20) … playing its up-tempo 'Mayhem' style, McCarthy's crews led the nation in steals per game for four straight seasons (2013-14 to 2016-17), while staying among the top 10 in steals each year since ... McCarthy sports head-coaching records of 234-38 (.861) at UAA and 248-51 (.829) overall, having served in an interim capacity at Northwest Nazarene in 2010-11 … McCarthy is assisted in 2020-21 by 10th-year associate head coach Shaina Afoa (the 2017-18 WBCA NCAA Div. II National Assistant Coach of the Year) and former Seawolf great Kiki Robertson (1st season).
 
NATIONAL RANKINGS: UAA moved up four spots to No. 5 in the D2SIDA (sports information directors) top-25 poll and one spot to No. 8 in this week's WBCA coaches' poll ... this marks the Seawolves' 105th straight appearance in the WBCA poll (not including the pandemic season), starting with the rankings of Dec. 2, 2014 ... UAA has been no lower than No. 16 over the last 104 WBCA polls, spending 87 of those weeks in the top 10.
 
WBCA/USA Today NCAA Div. II
Top 25 Coaches' Poll - Jan. 18, 2022
UAA & opponents in bold; West Region teams in italics
Rk Team [1st-place votes]       Rec.  Pts  Last
 1 Drury (MO) [22]              18-1  574  1
 2 Fort Hays State (KS)         15-1  540  2
 3 Glenville State (WV) [1]     14-0  513  3
 4 Texas A&M Commerce           13-1  495  6
 5 Ashland (OH)                 13-1  468  7
 6 Azusa Pacific (CA)           10-1  415  8
 7 Lander (SC)                  12-2  397  10
 8 ALASKA ANCHORAGE             10-1  389  9
 9 North Georgia                12-1  387  11
10 Lubbock Christian (TX)       14-3  363  4
11 Western Washington           10-1  335  5
 
D2SIDA NCAA Div. II Top 25 Media Poll - Jan. 18, 2022
UAA & opponents in bold; West Region teams in italics
Rk Team [1st-place votes]       Rec.  Pts  Last
 1 Drury (MO) [14]              18-1  396  1
 2 Texas A&M Commerce           13-1  365  6
 3 Fort Hays State (KS) [1]     15-1  357  5
 4 Ashland (OH)                 13-1  337  4
 5 ALASKA ANCHORAGE             10-1  319  9
 6 Glenville State (WV) [1]     14-0  316  7
 7 North Georgia                12-1  306  8
 8 Lander (SC)                  12-2  261  10
 9 Union (TN)                   13-2  259  11
10 Lubbock Christian (TX)       14-3  256  t2
13 Western Washington           10-1  204  t2
14 Azusa Pacific (CA)           10-1  196  19
21 Cal State East Bay           11-1   76  21
 
D2SIDA West Region Media Poll - Jan. 17, 2022
 Rk  Team (1st-pl. votes)   Rec. Pts  Last
  1 Alaska Anchorage (3)   10-1  55   2
  2 Azusa Pacific (1)      10-1  47   t3
  2 Western Washington     10-1  47   1
  4 Cal State East Bay     11-1  39   t3
  5 Cal State San Marcos    9-2  33   5
  6 Central Washington      9-4  32   10
  6 Hawaii Hilo (2)         6-2  32   t7
  8 Stanislaus State       10-2  23   6
  9 Northwest Nazarene      9-4  14   9
 10 Biola                   8-4   4   RV
 
2021-22 SEAWOLF INDIVIDUAL HONORS
JAHNNA HAJDUKOVICH
Seawolf Hoops Classic All-Tournament Team
SALA LANGI
Preseason All-GNAC Team
NICOLE PINCKNEY
Seawolf Hoops Classic Most Outstanding Player
TENNAE VOLIVA
Preseason All-GNAC Team
 
UAA School Records Broken/Tied in 2021-22
INDIVIDUAL
None
TEAM
Game
Most Points, 2nd Quarter — 31 at Hawaii Pacific, Dec. 14 (ties record set vs William Jewell, 10/30/15 at Anaheim)
Most Points, 2nd Quarter (road) — 31 at Hawaii Pacific, Dec. 14 (old record: 27, twice, last at Western Oregon, Jan. 5, 2017)
Fewest Points Allowed, 1st Quarter — 2 vs Winston-Salem State, Nov. 27 (old record: 4, four times)
Misc.
Consecutive Wins, Alaska Airlines Center – 33, 11/16/19 to 1/15/22 (old record: 16, 11/5/15 to 2/25/16)
Consecutive Conference Regular-Season Home Wins – 41, 11/30/16 to 1/15/22