THIS WEEK IN ALASKA ANCHORAGE VOLLEYBALL...
 
Thu., Nov. 2 — Alaska Airlines Center — Anchorage, AK — 7 pm ADT
Western Oregon (8-12, 2-10 GNAC) at Alaska Anchorage (13-15, 5-8 GNAC)
&
Sat., Nov. 4 — Alaska Airlines Center — Anchorage, AK — 7 pm ADT
Saint Martin's (14-8, 7-5 GNAC [Thu. @UAF]) at Alaska Anchorage
 
TICKETS: GoSeawolves.com
LIVE VIDEO: youtube.com/UAASeawolves
LIVE STATS: GoSeawolves.com/sidearmstats/wvball
 
UAA PROBABLE STARTERS (2023 stats)
S—Makana Eleneki, 5-6, Jr. (0.36 kps, .361 att%, 5.62 aps, 2.09 dps)
RS—Bella Burney, 6-0, Fr. (1.55 kps, .155 att%, 0.64 bps)
OH—Bethany Tuchardt, 6-2, So. (2.52 kps, .190 att%, 0.60 bps)
OH—Nicole Blue, 5-9, Sr. (3.29 kps, .179 att%, 2.62 dps, 0.50 ace/set)
MB—Isabel Evans, 6-3, Jr. (1.68 kps, .211 att%, 1.04 bps)
MB—Leilani Elder, 5-10, Jr. (1.54 kps, .182 att%, 0.86 bps)
L—Reilly Plumhoff, 5-4, Jr. (3.32 dps)
 
HOME FOR A PAIR: The Seawolves return to the Alaska Airlines Center this week as they continue try to even their overall record, hosting Western Oregon on Thursday and Saint Martin's on Saturday, both at 7 p.m.
 
SCOUTING REPORT: Western Oregon has dropped seven straight and nine of its last 10, following a 7-3 start ... the Wolves are led by Madison Hornback (GNAC-best 3.50 kps, .213 att%, 3.14 dps and Bailee Hartsook (2.20 kps, .185 att%, .191 dps) ... chasing its first ever upper-half GNAC finish, Saint Martin's has won six of its last eight as it heads into Thursday's match at UAF ... the Saints, from Lacey, Wash., are led by Emily Garten (3.27 kps, .202 att%) and Jennifer Soha (2.21 kps, .378 att%, 0.73 bps).
 
THE SERIES...
vs WOU: UAA leads 31-15 overall, 15-7 in Anchorage
Streak: UAA 20
Last: UAA 3-2 (10/7/23 at WOU)
Notes: The Seawolves had swept six straight meetings prior to last month's 3-2 win in Monmouth ... UAA has won nine straight at home, including all seven at the Alaska Airlines Center ... WOU's last win was Oct. 20, 2012 at the Avis Alaska Sports Complex ... UAA leads 29-14 in GNAC meetings (since 2001) ... series started in 1981 but teams did not play again until 1999.
 
vs SMU: UAA leads 41-5 overall, 20-1 in Anchorage
Streak: SMU 1
Last: SMU 3-1 (10/5/23 at SMU)
Notes: SMU snapped a 29-match losing streak to UAA with its 4-set win in Lacey last month, earning its first win over the Seawolves since 2007 ... UAA has won 14 straight at home, including an 8-0 mark at the Alaska Airlines Center ... UAA leads 38-5 in GNAC matches (since 2001) ... teams played first two matches as Pac West Conference opponents in 1998 and 1999.
 
FAVORITES PREVAIL: The Seawolves recorded a 1-1 record on their latest road trip, falling 3-1 to No. 19 Seattle Pacific on Thursday and winning 3-0 at last-place Montana State Billings on Saturday ... in the first match, Sr. Nicole Blue collected a match-high 14 kills, but the nation's top blocking team held on for a 25-15, 25-17, 19-25, 25-20 decision to sweep the season series ... on Saturday, Blue had 12 kills and Montana native Isabel Evans blasted 6 kills on .455 hitting and made 5 total blocks (2 solo) in a 25-23, 25-23, 25-14 victory ... So. DS Sydney Johnson also gave a big spark off the bench against MSUB with 5 aces, 7 digs, 10-of-10 serve receiving and just one service error.
 
FEELIN' BLUE: The Seawolves' lone senior and Preseason All-GNAC pick, OH Nicole Blue has lived up to the hype, leading the GNAC with 4.02 points per set, along ranks of 3rd in kills (3.29 kps), 2nd in aces (0.50) and 19th in digs (2.62) ... the team's most experienced all-rotation player, Blue has eight double-doubles (the first of her career), including 15 kills and a career-high 23 digs in the win over Hawaii Hilo, and a career-high 20 kills in a 4-setter at WWU ... the Cerritos, Calif., native has reached double-figure kills in 22 of 28 contests, including 19 in the loss to Hilo, 18 in a loss to Chaminade, and 18 in the 3-0 win over Union ... Blue set the UAA rally-scoring (since 2001) record with 8 aces in a 3-set match against Arkansas Monticello, and is currently on pace for UAA's third-most aces per set (0.48) since 25-point rally scoring took effect in 2008.
 
KILLER 'E's: UAA's two veteran returners in the middle have stepped into leadership roles this season as Jr. MB Leilani Elder and Jr. MB Isabel Evans are combining for 3.22 kills and 1.90 blocks per set thus far ... Elder was clutch in helping UAA to a 3-1 record at its own Seawolf Invitational, hitting over .300 in each match and finishing with consecutive career highs of 8 and 11 kills in the victories over Cal Poly Humboldt and Florida Tech ... meanwhile, Evans connected for 11 kills on .550 hitting to power the 3-2 comeback win over Upper Iowa and tallied a career-high 12 kills in the 3-1 loss at Western Washington ... Evans currently ranks 5th in the GNAC with 1.04 blocks per set, and Elder is 16th with 0.86 bps ... on UAA's career list, Evans ranks 11th with 1.04 bps.
 
GOT YER BACK: The Seawolves have one of the top back-row tandems in the GNAC this year as Jr. L/DS Reilly Plumhoff and So. L/DS Madison Galloway are combining for 6.03 digs per set and a .935 reception percentage ... currently 9th in the GNAC stats with 3.32 dps, Plumhoff collected Seawolf Invitational All-Tournament honors in September and posted a career-high 23 digs in the 5-set win at Western Oregon ... the former Dimond High standout also had 4 aces to key the win over Florida Tech, and now stands top 20 on UAA's career lists for aces (17th, 10), aces per set (19th, 4.297) and victories (18th, 65) ... meanwhile, Galloway has recorded double-digit digs in 12 matches, topping out with a career-high 21 digs to key the 3-1 victory over Northwest Nazarene ... Galloway ranks 16th in the GNAC with 2.71 dps, while the Floridian owns a team-best .946 serve reception rate.
 
SETTER UP: For the first time since 2017, the Seawolves are using two primary setters, with juniors Makana Eleneki and Kadyn Osborne taking over offensive quarterback duties ... a graduate student in her fifth year with the program, Eleneki has impressed with 5.62 assists per set (8th in GNAC) thus far, while also managing 2.09 digs per set ... although not a huge attacker, Eleneki has made the most of her opportunities, collecting 32 kills on just 69 attacks for a team-best .361 hitting pct. ... one of three former local Dimond High stars on the roster, Osborne is posting 4.78 aps and solid blocking numbers of 0.39 in a primarily '6-2' rotation ... Osborne has dished at least 20 assists on nine occasions and registered multiple kills in 15 of her 27 appearances, along with 5 block assists in the 3-1 win over Florida Tech.
 
I HEART TUCHARDT: An All-NWAC performer at Highline (Wash.) College, Jr. OH Bethany Tuchardt (pronounced TOO-hart) has started her NCAA career with double-digit kills in 14 of her first 28 matches ... UAA's second-leading kills producer with 2.52 kps (11th GNAC), she started her home career with 14 kills on .355 hitting to power the win over Upper Iowa ... the Battle Ground, Wash., native captured GNAC Offensive Player of the Week honors for her performance in Arkansas, which included a 14-kill effort on .565 hitting against Ouachita and 16 kills on .429 hitting in the win over Henderson State.
 
TEAM NOTES: The Seawolves need four wins in their final five matches to claim their 16th consecutive winning season, while they must run the table to earn the program's  14th straight winning conference record ... UAA is also in danger of seeing a streak of 14 straight top-4 GNAC finishes come to an end ... the Seawolves are 99-24 at the Alaska Airlines Center since the arena's opening in Sept. 2014, and 146-36 at home since 2009 ... UAA's .409 attack percentage against Ouachita Baptist was the program's 12th-best since rally scoring took effect in 2001 ... the -.049 attack percentage by Arkansas Monticello and the -.040 by UAF marked the 7th- and 8th-best opponent attack numbers by a UAA team in the rally scoring era ... the 14 aces (with no errors) against Monticello were the most by a Seawolf team since Oct. 22, 2019 ... the Seawolves saw their Alaska Airlines Center record streak of 16 straight victories come to an end with the loss to St. Cloud State ... with the loss to SPU last week, the Seawolves are now 25-22 against AVCA Top 25 teams since 2014.
 
EYES ON MEISNER: After six seasons as the program's top assistant, former Seawolf standout Stacie Meisner takes the head coaching reins in 2023 ... in her six years on former mentor Chris Green's staff, Meisner helped the Seawolves achieve a 119-42 record and NCAA Tournament appearances in four of the five seasons not affected by Covid ... UAA went a combined 74-20 in the GNAC during her assistant-coaching tenures, finishing no worse than third place and capturing the league title in 2022 ... Meisner began her collegiate coaching career as a graduate assistant on UAA's 2011 club that went 18-9 and earned an NCAA berth ... she rejoined UAA in the same capacity in 2018 and was promoted to top assistant in 2019 ... UAA's starting libero from 2008-09, helping spark the program's turnaround; in 2009, she led UAA with 4.54 digs and 0.36 aces per set as the Seawolves won their first GNAC title, reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament and equaled the best record in school history at 23-8 ... an honorable mention All-GNAC and academic all-conference honoree, she finished No. 2 in digs per set (4.53) and No. 3 in aces per set (.357) on UAA's career lists ... also a JC star at Western Nebraska CC in 2006-07, Meisner graduated from UAA with magna cum laude honors in English in 2011, before earning her Master of Arts in English from UAA in 2015.
 
2023 Individual Honors
NICOLE BLUE
Denali State Bank Ice Block Classic All-Tournament Team
GNAC Offensive Player of the Week, Aug. 21-27
Alaska/Hawaii Challenge All-Tournament Team
Preseason All-GNAC Team
GNAC All-Academic Team
LEILANI ELDER
Reddie-Tiger Invitational All-Tournament Team
Seawolf Invitational All-Tournament Team
MAKANA ELENEKI
Alaska/Hawaii Challenge All-Tournament Team
GNAC All-Academic Team
MADISON GALLOWAY
GNAC All-Academic Team (4.00 GPA)
REILLY PLUMHOFF
Seawolf Invitational All-Tournament Team
GNAC All-Academic Team
BETHANY TUCHARDT
GNAC Offensive Player of the Week, Sept. 11-17
Reddie-Tiger Invitational All-Tournament Team