THIS WEEK IN ALASKA ANCHORAGE VOLLEYBALL...
 
Thu., Sept. 28 — Alaska Airlines Ctr. — Anchorage, AK — 7 pm ADT
Montana State Billings (2-12, 0-4 GNAC) at Alaska Anchorage (9-9, 1-2 GNAC)
&
Sat., Sept. 30 — Alaska Airlines Ctr. — Anchorage, AK — 7 pm ADT
#24 Seattle Pacific (10-2, 4-0 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. (0.40 kps, .400 att%, 5.89 aps, 2.22 dps)
RS—Bella Burney, 6-0, Fr. (1.32 kps, .124 att%, 0.64 bps)
OH—Bethany Tuchardt, 6-2, So. (2.48 kps, .226 att%, 0.62 bps)
OH—Nicole Blue, 5-9, Sr. (3.30 kps, .199 att%, 2.73 dps, 0.56 ace/set)
MB—Isabel Evans, 6-3, Jr. (1.77 kps, .260 att%, 0.96 bps)
MB—Leilani Elder, 5-10, Jr. (1.58 kps, .209 att%, 0.79 bps)
L—Reilly Plumhoff, 5-4, Jr. (2.91 dps, 0.74 aps, .941 rec.%)
 
FINALLY BACK HOME: The Seawolves become the last of the GNAC's 10 teams to play their league home openers when they host last-place Montana State Billings on Thursday and first-place Seattle Pacific on Saturday at the Alaska Airlines Center, both at 7 p.m. ADT ... the Seawolves carry an 11-match GNAC home win streak into the action, dating to Nov. 18, 2021.
 
SCOUTING REPORT: After a 2-1 start, Montana State Billings has dropped 11 straight, despite taking three of those contests to five sets ... the Yellowjackets are led by Fr. MB Julia Gordon (2.69 kps, .211 att%) and Sr. MB Paiten Langston (2.14 kps, .260 att%, 0.93 bps) ... nationally ranked for the first time since 2011, No. 24 Seattle Pacific rides a nine-match win streak into its Thursday match at UAF, including a 3-2 (18-16) home win over GNAC preseason favorite Central Washington on Saturday ... the Falcons, whose lone losses came at Point Loma and against common opponent Biola, are led by Sr. OH Sarah Brachvogel (3.37 kps, .244 att%, 2.28 dps) and Sr. MB Erin Smith (2.14 kps, .195 att%, 1.00 bps).
 
THE SERIES...
vs MSUB: UAA leads 55-11 overall, 27-5 in Anchorage
Streak: UAA 8
Last: UAA 3-0 (10/15/22 at UAA)
Notes: The Seawolves have won 23 of the past 24 meetings, including 3-0 wins in the last four matches ... UAA has won four straight and 11 of the last 12 in Anchorage ... MSUB's lone win over the last decade was a 3-1 upset in UAA's 2017 home finale ... teams have not played a 5-setter since 2008 ... UAA leads 24-6 since MSUB joined the GNAC in 2007 ... MSUB is UAA's second-most common opponent, trailing only UAF … teams met twice per season every year from 1985-2000 as members of the Pac West.
 
vs SPU: UAA leads 33-30 overall, 17-13 in Anchorage
Streak: UAA 2
Last: UAA 3-0 (10/13/22 at UAA)
Notes: UAA has won 18 of the last 20 meetings, including seven of eight matches at the Alaska Airlines Center since its opening in 2014 ... SPU's lone victory in Anchorage over the last decade came by a 3-2 count in 2018 ... UAA leads 26-16 in GNAC matches (since 2001) ... first meetings came in 1991 as members of the Pac West Conference.
 
ROUGH ROAD: The Seawolves returned to GNAC play last week with a pair of losses at traditional contenders Western Washington and Simon Fraser ... in the first match, Sr. OH Nicole Blue struck for a career-high 20 kills and added 4 aces, but the Seawolves could not capitalize on chances late in the final three sets as they fell 18-25, 25-23, 25-20, 27-25 at WWU ... Jr. MB Isabel Evans added 5 block assists and a career-high 12 kills on .476 hitting, but no other Seawolf managed as many at five kills ... on Saturday, Blue had 11 kills and Jr. OH Bethany Tuchardt added 10 kills on .333 hitting as SFU swept the Seawolves for just the second time in 25 all-time meetings, 25-21, 25-21, 25-20 ... So. DS Madison Galloway paced the back row with 10 digs in the loss, while Evans had 5 block assists.
 
FEELIN' BLUE: The Seawolves' lone senior and Preseason All-GNAC pick, OH Nicole Blue has lived up to the hype, leading the GNAC with 4.06 points per set and ranking 2nd in kills (3.30 kps), 3rd in aces (0.56) and 15th in digs (2.73) ... the team's most experienced all-rotation player, Blue has seven 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 14 of 18 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, 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 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 3.35 kills and 1.75 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 last week at WWU ... Evans currently ranks top-15 in the GNAC in both blocks (10th, 0.96 bps) and attack pct. (13th, .260), while on UAA's career list she is 13th with 1.01 bps.
 
GOT YER BACK: The Seawolves have one of the top back-row tandems in the West Region this year as Jr. L/DS Reilly Plumhoff and So. L/DS Madison Galloway are combining for 5.68 digs per set and a .950+ reception percentage ... currently 12th in the GNAC stats with 2.91 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 17th on the UAA program's all-time victories list with 61 ... meanwhile, Galloway has recorded double-digit digs in nine of 18 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 .960 serve reception rate and has committed just 12 service errors in 255 tries this year for a team-best .953 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 5.89 assists per set (8th in GNAC) thus far, while also managing 2.22 digs per set ... although not a huge attacker, Eleneki has made the most of her opportunities thus far, collecting 26 kills on just 55 attacks for a .400 hitting pct. ... one of three former local Dimond High stars on the roster, Osborne is posting 4.02 aps and solid blocking numbers of 0.32 in a '6-2' rotation ... Osborne has dished at least 20 assists on five occasions and registered multiple kills in nine of her 17 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 nine of her first 18 matches ... UAA's second-leading kills producer with 2.48 kps (14th 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: 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 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