THIS WEEK IN ALASKA ANCHORAGE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL...
 
Thur., Jan. 27 - Alterowitz Gymnasium - Billings, Mont. - 3:15 pm AST
#19 Alaska Anchorage (10-3, 3-2 GNAC) at Montana State Billings (11-8, 5-2 GNAC)
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Sat., Jan. 29 - Royal Brougham Pavilion - Seattle, Wash. - 1 pm AST
#19 Alaska Anchorage at Seattle Pacific (7-8, 3-2 GNAC [11/27 vs UAF])
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Sun., Jan. 30 - Royal Brougham Pavilion - Seattle, Wash. - 1 pm AST
#19 Alaska Anchorage at Seattle Pacific
 
LIVE VIDEO: Thursday at youtube.com/watch?v=HbHTbtjYsng ... Saturday & Sunday at youtube.com/channel/UChFriWtnm5Q9gvbVAtfYnhg
 
LIVE STATS: Thursday at msubsports.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary ... Saturday and Sunday at spufalcons.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary
 
SOCIAL MEDIA: Check the @UAAWBB Twitter feed for in-game updates.
 
UAA PROBABLE STARTERS (2021-22 stats)
G—Nicole Pinckney, 5-5, Jr. (9.9 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 3.8 apg, 1.3 spg, .344 3FG)
G—Jahnna Hajdukovich, 5-8, Jr. (8.1 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 1.5 apg, .354 3FG)
F—Sala Langi, 5-9, Sr. (8.4 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 2.2 apg, 1.8 spg, .750 FT)
F—Jazzpher Evans, 5-6, Fr. (6.3 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 1.3 apg, 1.1 spg, .444 3FG)
F—Tennae Voliva, 6-0, Sr. (9.6 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 1.8 apg, 2.2 spg, .446 FG, .836 FT)
 
ROAD PRESSURE INTENSIFIES: The Seawolves will try to avoid a rare three-game losing streak and stay in the early hunt for their seventh straight GNAC regular-season title when they face Montana State Billings on Thursday and play back-to-back against Seattle Pacific on Saturday and Sunday ... Thursday's game is a rematch of UAA's Jan. 17 defeat against MSUB, while Sunday's contest is a rescheduled game from Dec. 30 that was originally to take place in Anchorage.
 
SCOUTING THE FOES: Montana State Billings has overcome a late November/early December slump to jump into GNAC title contention, winning five out of its last six, including thorough victories at Saint Martin's (55-31), at UAA (72-48) and vs Seattle Pacific (81-55) ... tied for No. 9 in the latest D2SIDA West Region rankings, the Yellowjackets are led by Taryn Shelley (12.8 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 1.3 bpg, .475 FG, .800 FT) and Cariann Kunkel (12.3 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 1.8 apg, .521 FG, .797 FT) ... Seattle Pacific has had an up-and-down campaign that has featured seven one- or two-possession outcomes in 13 games against D-II foes, including an OT loss to Pac West leader Azusa Pacific and a 57-55 setback at CCAA leader Cal State East Bay ... the Falcons are led by Ashley Alter (12.1 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 1.7 apg, .737 FT) and Natalie Hoff (11.5 ppg, 7.1 rpg, .471 FG, .800 FT).
 
THE SERIES...
vs. MSUB: UAA leads 38-28 overall, 16-15 in Billings
Streak: MSUB 1
Last: MSUB 72-48 (1/17/22 at UAA)
Notes: UAA has won 25 of 29 since MSUB joined the GNAC in 2007-08 ... UAA had won 12 straight regular-season meetings until last week's loss in Anchorage ... UAA has won six straight in Billings since a 75-72 MSUB victory, Mar. 1, 2014 ... UAA leads 24-3 in GNAC regular-season meetings and 15-4 under Ryan McCarthy ... MSUB is UAA's 3rd-most common opponent (behind UAF and Seattle Pacific), despite splitting into different leagues from 2002-07 … teams played twice yearly from 1984-85 to 2000-01 as members of the Pacific West and Continental Divide conferences.
 
vs SPU: SPU leads 36-33 overall, 22-10 in Seattle
Last: UAA 69-49 (2/1/20 at UAA)
Streak: UAA 4
Notes: UAA has won two straight and seven of its last eight against SPU in Seattle, including a 78-47 win in the last meeting, Jan. 2, 2020 ... the Seawolves have won the last four meetings by an average of 26.8 points ... series is tied 19-19 in GNAC regular-season meetings after SPU took the first 11 encounters … UAA leads 16-2 under head coach Ryan McCarthy ... SPU is UAA's 2nd-most common opponent, squaring off at least once per season since 1990-91 … series started in 1979-80.
 
VIKINGS OUTLAST SEAWOLVES: Jr. PG Nicole Pinckney and Sr. C Tennae Voliva scored 10 points apiece to lead a second-half comeback, but 11th-ranked Western Washington responded with a game-ending 15-7 run to earn a 53-45 victory at the Alaska Airlines Center on Thursday ... the Seawolves also got a career-high-tying 10 rebounds from Jr. F Kimani Fernandez as they suffered their first back-to-back losses since the final two games of the 2013-14 season ... the setback also marked UAA's first back-to-back home losses since falling to Northwest Nazarene and Central Washington on Jan. 17 and Jan. 19, 2013, at the old 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 198-20 (.908), 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 123-11 – 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 201-18 (.918) in the last 15 seasons on its home courts, including 92-8 (.920) 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 (16.7 apg), turnover margin (+8.0), offensive rebounds per game (15.2) and offensive rebound pct. (.390), and rank second in three other categories ... of 297 teams nationally, UAA ranks top 50 in eight categories, including top 30 in turnover margin (8th), turnovers forced (16th, 23.9), steals (14th), assists (16th), scoring defense (29th, 56.4) and offensive rebounding (30th) ... the Seawolves are attempting 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 has gotten off to a solid start with 9.6 ppg and GNAC ranks of 3rd in steals (2.2 spg, 92nd nationally), 2nd in FT% (.836, 65th nationally), 12th in blocks (0.7 bpg) and 13th in rebounding (5.9 rpg) ... on UAA's career lists, Voliva stands 7th in blocks (70), 12th in blocks per game (0.6), 14th in rebounds (543), 13th in games played (113), 18th in FG% (.484) and tied for 9th in victories, sporting a 100-13 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 (3.2 rpg), assists (2.2 apg) and steals (1.8 spg, 7th in GNAC) ... the Seawolves' active career scoring leader with 729 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 8th in 3FG% (.354) and 6th 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 97 treys, 1.2 per game and a .349 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 5th in the GNAC with 3.8 assists per game (89th nationally), 3rd with a 2.2 assist-turnover ratio (23rd nationally), 8th in 3FGs per game (1.7) and 11th in 3FG% (.344), draining 5 of 10 treys for a career-high 21 points in the win at Northwest Nazarene ... 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 .827 ... 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 234-39 (.857) at UAA and 248-52 (.827) 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's losses last week dropped it from No. 5 all the way out of the D2SIDA (sports information directors) top-25 poll, however the Seawolves remained in the WBCA coaches' poll at No. 19 ... this marks the Seawolves' 106th straight appearance in the WBCA poll (not including the pandemic season), starting with the rankings of Dec. 2, 2014 ... prior to this week, UAA had 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. 25, 2022
UAA & opponents in bold; West Region teams in italics
Rk Team [1st-place votes]       Rec.  Pts  Last
 1 Glenville State (WV) [19]    16-0  561  3
 2 Ashland (OH) [2]             14-1  528  5
 3 Azusa Pacific (CA)           12-1  496  6
 4 Drury (MO) [2]               19-2  484  1
 5 Lander (SC)                  14-2  453  7
 6 North Georgia                14-1  439  9
 7 Fort Hays State (KS)         16-2  426  2
 8 Lubbock Christian (TX)       16-3  386  10
 9 Western Washington           12-1  381  11
10 Texas A&M Commerce           15-2  378  4
19 ALASKA ANCHORAGE             10-3  170  8
WEST REGION TEAMS RECEIVING VOTES: 29) Cal State East Bay 15, 30) Cal State San Marcos 10.
 
D2SIDA NCAA Div. II Top 25 Media Poll - Jan. 25, 2022
UAA & opponents in bold; West Region teams in italics
Rk Team [1st-place votes]       Rec.  Pts  Last
 1 Ashland (OH) [10]            14-1  388  4
 2 Glenville State (WV) [3]     16-0  347  6
 3 North Georgia                14-1  345  7
 4 Drury (MO)                   19-2  338  1
 5 Colorado Mines               15-1  332  11
 6 Fort Hays State (KS) [2]     16-2  306  3
 7 Texas A&M Commerce           15-2  294  2
 8 Union (TN) [1]               15-2  291  9
 9 Lander (SC)                  14-2  286  8
10 Western Washington           12-1  274  13
12 Azusa Pacific (CA)           12-1  216  14
18 Cal State East Bay           13-1  137  21
25 Cal State San Marcos         11-2   46  RV
WEST REGION TEAMS RECEIVING VOTES: 29) UAA 17.
 
D2SIDA West Region Media Poll - Jan. 24, 2022
 Rk  Team (1st-pl. votes)   Rec. Pts  Last
  1 Western Washington (4) 12-1  58   t2
  2 Azusa Pacific (1)      12-1  48   t2
  3 Cal State East Bay     13-1  47   4
  4 Cal State San Marcos   11-2  38   5
  5 Alaska Anchorage       10-3  31   1
    Central Washington (1) 11-4  31   t6
  7 Northwest Nazarene     11-4  27   9
  8 Hawaii Hilo             7-3  20   t6
  9 Montana State Billings 11-8  14   RV
    Stanislaus State       11-3  14   8
 
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