BELLINGHAM, Wash. (Sept. 21) – Alaska Anchorage senior
Nicole Blue delivered a career-high 20 kills, but two big Western Washington comebacks made the difference Thursday as the hosts earned an 18-25, 25-23, 25-20, 27-25 victory in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball rivalry showdown at Carver Gymnasium.
The Seawolves (9-8, 1-1 GNAC) also got a career-high 12 kills on .476 hitting from junior middle blocker
Isabel Evans as their four-match winning streak came to an end.
The Vikings (2-9, 2-1) were led by 15 kills from Devin Oestreich and 37 assists from Adele Holland to win their second in a row.
"Blue and Isabel carried our offense, but unfortunately it wasn't quite enough," said UAA head coach
Stacie Meisner. "We had opportunities and just could quite execute the way we needed to to close out the third and fourth sets."
Junior libero
Reilly Plumhoff led UAA with 17 kills, junior setter
Makana Eleneki had 21 assists and nine digs, while Evans,
Bella Burney and
Leilani Elder had five block assists apiece.
After outhitting the Vikings .265 to .117 in taking the opening set, the Seawolves were held to .158 or less in the final three frames.
UAA rallied to tie the second set 22-22 when Blue, Evans and Blue again struck for consecutive kills, but the hosts would recover with three kills in the final four tallies, including a pair by Karli Tri.
The Seawolves saw an 11-4 lead evaporate quickly into a 12-12 tie in the third, and Holland finally gave Western the lead with an ace that made it 20-19. An Evans kill brought UAA within 21-20 before the Vikings used a 4-0 run to take the set.
Despite trailing 7-2 at the outset of the fourth, UAA stormed back and forged a 16-14 edge on two straight Viking attack errors. Blue's final kill made it a 22-17 advantage, but a Western timeout would completely switch the momentum back to the home team, which scored the next five points. The Seawolves had a chance at set point after Evans slammed one into the middle of the court, only to see Emily Vossenkuhl convert a kill for a 25-25 deadlock. The Vikings then took the match when Evans and freshman
Trinity Tatupu hit just wide on the final two points.
An outside hitter from Cerritos, Calif., Blue hit .231 and added eight digs and four aces as she topped her previous career high of 19 kills from earlier this season against Hawaii Hilo. Meanwhile, Evans looked sharp despite missing last week's action, also bettering her previous high by one kill.
The Seawolves travel north of the border Saturday for a 6 p.m. ADT contest against Simon Fraser (7-4, 2-1 GNAC) in Burnaby, British Columbia. Surf to GoSeawolves.com for links to live video and stats.
NOTES: Blue's 20 kills were also a UAA season high … the match featured the teams who have won every GNAC title awarded between 2015-22 (UAA 2015, 2016, 2022; WWU 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021) … it was the first time since Oct. 2011 – a span of 22 meetings – in which neither team came in nationally ranked … eleven of the last 13 meetings in the series have now gone four or five sets.
