THIS WEEK IN ALASKA ANCHORAGE VOLLEYBALL...
 
Thursday, Sept. 7 ­— Patty Center — Fairbanks, AK — 7:30 pm ADT
#21 Alaska Anchorage (4-4, 0-0 GNAC) at Alaska Fairbanks (2-6, 0-0 GNAC)
Friday, Sept. 8 ­— Patty Center — Fairbanks, AK (Nanook Classic)
#21 Alaska Anchorage vs Lander (3-1), 4 pm ADT
Saturday, Sept. 9 ­— Patty Center — Fairbanks, AK (Nanook Classic)
#21 Alaska Anchorage vs Stanislaus State (3-1), 10 am ADT
&
#21 Alaska Anchorage vs Biola (2-1), 4 pm ADT
 
LIVE VIDEO: All matches at youtube.com/TheAlaskaNanooks
 
LIVE STATS: All matches at AlaskaNanooks.com/sidearmstats/wvball
 
UAA PROBABLE STARTERS (2023 stats)
S—Makana Eleneki, 5-6, Jr. (0.55 kps, .452 att%, 6.58 aps, 2.61 dps)
RS—Larssen Anderson, 6-0, Jr. (2.26 kps, .174 att%, 0.42 bps)
OH—Bethany Tuchardt, 6-2, So. (2.42 kps, .257 att%, 0.45 bps)
OH—Nicole Blue, 5-9, Sr. (3.00 kps, .181 att%, 3.06 dps, 0.58 ace/set)
MB—Isabel Evans, 6-3, Jr. (1.52 kps, .270 att%, 0.81 bps)
MB—Leilani Elder, 5-10, Jr. (1.55 kps, .231 att%, 0.81 bps)
L—Reilly Plumhoff, 5-5, Jr. (3.06 dps, 0.87 aps, 0.29 ace/set)
 
BUSY WEEK UP NORTH: Ranked No. 21 in this week's AVCA NCAA Div. II national poll, the Alaska Anchorage volleyball team travels north to Fairbanks for four matches ... the defending GNAC champions begin their title defense Thursday with the league opener at 7:30 p.m. against Alaska Fairbanks, before facing first-time foe Lander on Friday ... UAA takes the court for two critical NCAA Div. II West Region matches Saturday, challenging Stanislaus State and Biola.
 
THE SERIES...
vs UAF: UAA leads 78-38 overall, 33-25 at UAF
Streak: UAA 2
Last: UAA 3-1 (10/29/22 at UAA)
Notes: UAA has won seven of the last 11 meetings, following a 16-match win streak from 2010-18 ... the home team has won 11 of the last 13 meetings, although UAA won 3-0 last season at UAF ... UAA leads 30-12 in GNAC meetings (since 2001) ... teams have played at least twice per season since 1980.
 
vs Lander: First meeting
 
vs Stanislaus State: UAA leads 2-1 overall; 0-0 neutral
Streak: UAA 1
Last: UAA 3-0 (9/2/16 at UAA)
Notes: Last meeting came during UAA's national runner-up season of 2016 ... first two meetings occurred in 2001 as teams split a pair of non-conference matches in Anchorage.
 
vs Biola: UAA leads 3-0 overall, 1-0 neutral
Last: UAA 3-2 (9/2/21 at UAA)
Notes: Two of the three matches have gone five sets and the other went four ... series started with two matches in Sept. 2019.
 
FEELIN' BLUE: The Seawolves' lone senior and Preseason All-GNAC pick, OH Nicole Blue has gotten off to a fast start, ranking 9th in the GNAC with 3.00 points per set, 6th with 3.77 points per set, 6th in aces (0.58) and 10th in digs (3.06) ... the team's most experienced all-rotation player, Blue started the season with four double-doubles (the first of her career) in the first five matches, including 15 kills and a career-high 23 digs in the win over Hawaii Hilo ... Blue collected four of the top five kills totals of her career on opening weekend to earn GNAC Offensive Player of the Week honors, pounding 19 against Hilo and 18 against Chaminade, and she served a career-best 5 aces in the 3-1 victory over Florida Tech.
 
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 3.07 kills and 1.62 blocks per set thus far ... Elder was clutch in helping UAA to a 3-1 record at its own Seawolf Invitational last week, hitting over .300 in each match and finishing with consecutive career highs of 8 and 11 kills in Saturday's 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 finished with 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 5.51 digs per set and recording .950+ reception percentages ... tied for 10th in the early GNAC stats with 3.06 dps, Plumhoff collected Seawolf Invitational All-Tournament honors last week after delivering 14 and 16 digs, respectively, in Saturday's two victories ... the former Dimond High standout also had 4 aces to key the win over Florida Tech, and now stands 19th on the UAA program's all-time victories list with 58 ... meanwhile, Galloway has recorded double-digit digs in four of eight matches, including career bests of 13 digs against Upper Iowa and 17 against Florida Tech last week ... the Floridian owns a team-best .955 serve reception rate and has committed just three service errors in 104 tries this year for a team-best .971 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 6.58 assists per set (7th in GNAC) thus far, while also managing 2.61 digs per set ... the Oahu native dished a career-high 44 assists on opening day against Hawaii Hilo and had a career-high 15 digs in the rematch victory over the Vulcans, while last week she had big matches with 21 assists, 3 kills and 13 digs against Upper Iowa and 22 assists, 14 digs and 2 kills on as many swings against Florida Tech ... another former local star at Dimond High, Osborne made her home debut with 20 assists, 3 kills and 2 block assists to aid the victory over Upper Iowa, and had 14 assists, and season bests of 5 digs and 5 block assists against Florida Tech.
 
WELCOME TO THE PIN PARTY: The Seawolves are featuring a pair of talented JC transfers on the left and right sides this year, with Jr. OH Bethany Tuchardt and Jr. RS Larssen Anderson combining for 4.68 kills per set on .215 hitting thus far ... an All-NWAC performer at Highline (Wash.) College, Tuchardt has started her NCAA career with at least five kills in all eight matches, including five double-digit efforts ... UAA's second-leading kills producer with 2.62 kps, she had 14 on .355 hitting to power the win over Upper Iowa and has connected at .260+ in all but two outings ... a former teammate of Osborne at both Dimond and Eastern Arizona College, Anderson has produced 2.26 kps and a solid 0.42 blocks per set ... with at least four kills in every match, Anderson has recorded 12 on three occasions, including in victories over Hawaii Hilo and Florida Tech.
 
STROLLIN' THE POLLS: After cracking the rankings for the final 13 polls of 2022 and starting this season at No. 14, UAA fell seven spots to No. 21 in the first regular-season AVCA Div. II Top 25 poll of 2023 ... UAA is one of three GNAC teams in the top 25, along with No. 22 Western Washington and No. 23 Central Washington, while Seattle Pacific is receiving votes.
 
2023 AVCA NCAA Div. II Top 25 Coaches Poll - Sept. 4
Rk School [1st-Pl. Votes]   Rec  Pts  Last
 1 West Texas A&M [41]      4-0  1152 1
 2 Concordia-St. Paul [3]   4-0  1125 2
 3 Wayne State (Neb.)       4-0  1011 4
 4 Tampa                    3-0   986 5
 5 St. Cloud State          4-0   922 7
 6 MSU Denver               3-1   907 3
 7 Minnesota Duluth         4-0   867 8
 8 Missouri-St. Louis       4-0   804 10
 9 Cal State San Bernardino 4-0   727 19
10 Nebraska Kearney         4-0   673 16
16 Cal State LA             1-3   405 9
20 Chaminade                8-0   309 NR
21 Alaska Anchorage         4-4   230 14
22 Western Washington       0-4   175 15
23 Central Washington       2-2   145 NR
23 Cal Poly Pomona          3-1   132 23
West Region Teams Receiving Votes: t49) Seattle Pacific 10 ... complete poll at avca.org.
 
TEAM NOTES: 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, 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
GNAC Offensive Player of the Week, Aug. 21-27
Alaska/Hawaii Challenge All-Tournament Team
Preseason All-GNAC Team
LEILANI ELDER
Seawolf Invitational All-Tournament Team
MAKANA ELENEKI
Alaska/Hawaii Challenge All-Tournament Team
REILLY PLUMHOFF
Seawolf Invitational All-Tournament Team