THIS WEEK IN ALASKA ANCHORAGE VOLLEYBALL...
 
Thu., Sept. 21 — Carver Gymnasium — Bellingham, Wash. — 6 pm ADT
Alaska Anchorage (9-7, 1-0 GNAC) at Western Washington (1-9, 1-1 GNAC)
&
Sat., Sept. 23 — SFU West Gymnasium — Burnaby, B.C. — 6 pm ADT
Alaska Anchorage at Simon Fraser (6-4, 1-1 GNAC [Thu. vs UAF])
 
LIVE VIDEO: Thursday: youtube.com/WWUVikingsAthletics
                       Saturday at youtube.com/watch?v=UdY59O9ZtT8
LIVE STATS: Thursday: wwuvikings.com/sidearmstats/wvball
                       Saturday: athletics.sfu.ca/sidearmstats/wvball
 
UAA PROBABLE STARTERS (2023 stats)
S—Makana Eleneki, 5-6, Jr. (0.41 kps, .447 att%, 6.00 aps, 2.25 dps)
RS—Bella Burney, 6-0, Fr. (1.40 kps, .166 att%, 0.57 bps)
OH—Bethany Tuchardt, 6-2, So. (2.53 kps, .243 att%, 0.59 bps)
OH—Nicole Blue, 5-9, Sr. (3.17 kps, .196 att%, 2.80 dps, 0.56 ace/set)
MB—Isabel Evans, 6-3, Jr. (1.63 kps, .245 att%, 0.89 bps)
MB—Leilani Elder, 5-10, Jr. (1.63 kps, .224 att%, 0.76 bps)
L—Madison Galloway, 5-4, So. (2.80 dps, 0.29 ace/set, 0.63 aps, .956 rec.%)
 
BORDER RIVALS AWAIT: The Seawolves get back to Great Northwest Athletic Conference play this week with road matches at traditional rivals Western Washington and Simon Fraser this week, both starting at 6 p.m. ADT.

THE SERIES...
vs WWU: WWU leads 38-21 overall, 15-8 in Bellingham
Streak: UAA 2
Last: UAA 3-1 (10/22/22 at WWU)
Notes: Thursday's match will mark the first time in 22 meetings – since Oct. 20, 2011 – that neither team is ranked going into the match ... UAA has won four of the last six meetings ... 10 of the last 12 matches have gone four or five sets, including UAA's NCAA Regional finals victory in 2016 and WWU's NCAA First Round victory in 2017 ... there have been six 5-setters and only three sweeps among the last 20 meetings ... the road team has won 14 of the last 22 meetings ...  WWU won 17 straight from 2001-08 … teams have met every year since 2000 … series started in 1980.
 
vs SFU: UAA leads 20-4 overall, 10-2 in Burnaby
Streak: SFU 1
Last: SFU 3-1 (10/20/22 at SFU)
Notes: The Red Leafs' upset of UAA last year in Burnaby was the Seawolves' lone GNAC loss of the season ... UAA won the first 15 matches in series history, although SFU has come back to win four of the last nine ... nine of the last 11 meetings have gone four or five sets ... SFU joined the GNAC in 2010.
 
QUEENS OF ARKANSAS: The Seawolves went 4-0 in their final non-conference matches last week at the Reddie-Tiger Invitational in Arkadelphia, Ark. ... UAA went 12-1 in sets, starting with a sweep of Union behind 18 kills and 10 digs from Sr. OH Nicole Blue ... Jr. OH Bethany Tuchardt delivered 14 kills on UAA season-best .565 hitting to power Friday night's sweep of tourney co-host Ouachita Baptist as the Seawolves connected for a season-high .409 attack pct. ... on Saturday, UAA routed Arkansas Monticello behind 11 kills and a school-record 8 aces from Blue, and finished with a 3-1 victory over co-host Henderson State, getting a career-high 16 kills on .429 hitting from Tuchardt in the finale ... freshmen Bella Burney and Trinity Tatupu had 10 kills apiece and So. DS Sydney Johnson collected career highs of 11 digs and 4 aces as UAA snapped HSU's 8-match win streak.
 
FEELIN' BLUE: The Seawolves' lone senior and Preseason All-GNAC pick, OH Nicole Blue has gotten off to a fast start, ranking 2nd in the GNAC with 3.60 points per set, 5th with 3.17 kills per set, 3rd in aces (0.56) and 11th in digs (2.80) ... the team's most experienced all-rotation player, Blue has seven double-doubles (the first of her career) in the first 16 matches, including 15 kills and a career-high 23 digs in the win over Hawaii Hilo ... the Cerritos, Calif., native has reached double-figure kills in 12 of 16 contests, including a career-high 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 last week, putting her on pace currently for UAA's most aces per set (0.56) since 25-point rally scoring took effect in 2008.
 
KILLER 'E's: UAA's two veterans returners in the middle have stepped into leadership roles this season as Jr. MB Leilani Elder and Jr. MB Isabel Evans are combining for 3.20 kills and 1.69 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 a career-high 11 kills on .550 hitting to power the 3-2 comeback win over Upper Iowa, and a career-best 3 aces in the win over Florida Tech.
 
GOT YER BACK: The Seawolves have one of the top back-row combos in the West Region this year as Jr. L/DS Reilly Plumhoff and So. L/DS Madison Galloway are combining for 5.05 digs per set and a .950+ reception percentage ... currently 10th in the GNAC stats with 2.83 dps, Plumhoff collected Seawolf Invitational All-Tournament honors and followed with a career-high 21 digs in the road sweep of Alaska Fairbanks ... the former Dimond High standout also had 4 aces to key the win over Florida Tech, and now stands 18th on the UAA program's all-time victories list with 60 ... meanwhile, Galloway has recorded double-digit digs in eight of 16 matches, including the four highest totals of her career (20 vs Lander, 18 vs Stanislaus State  and 17 vs Florida Tech and Henderson State) ... the Floridian owns a team-best .956 serve reception rate and has committed just eight service errors in 230 tries this year for a team-best .965 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 6.00 assists per set (6th in GNAC) thus far, while also managing 2.25 digs per set ... although not a huge attacker, Eleneki has made the most of her opportunities thus far, collecting 24 kills on just 47 attacks for a .447 hitting pct. ... one of three former local Dimond High stars on the roster, Osborne is posting 3.88 aps and solid blocking numbers of 0.35 in a '6-2' rotation ... Osborne has dished at least 20 kills on four occasions and registered multiple kills in seven of her 15 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 at least four kills in all 16 matches, including eight double-digit efforts ... UAA's second-leading kills producer with 2.53 kps (16th GNAC), she had started her home career with 14 kills on .355 hitting to power the win over Upper Iowa ... last week 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: 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 ... the Seawolves are aiming for their 16th consecutive winning season, 14th straight winning conference record and 14th straight top-4 GNAC finish in 2023 ... after going 3-1 last week in their opening tourney, the Seawolves are now 97-20 at the Alaska Airlines Center since the arena's opening in Sept. 2014, and 144-32 (.818) at home since 2009 ... with the loss to St. Cloud State, the Seawolves are now 25-19 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
LEILANI ELDER
Reddie-Tiger Invitational All-Tournament Team
Seawolf Invitational All-Tournament Team
MAKANA ELENEKI
Alaska/Hawaii Challenge All-Tournament Team
REILLY PLUMHOFF
Seawolf Invitational All-Tournament Team
BETHANY TUCHARDT
GNAC Offensive Player of the Week, Sept. 11-17
Reddie-Tiger Invitational All-Tournament Team