THIS WEEK IN ALASKA ANCHORAGE VOLLEYBALL...
 
Thursday, Oct. 17 — 7 pm ADT — Patty Center — Fairbanks, AK
Alaska Anchorage (10-8, 4-4 GNAC) at Alaska Fairbanks (12-6, 4-4 GNAC)
 
LIVE VIDEO: youtube.com/watch?v=XAmLdEuP51k
LIVE STATS: AlaskaNanooks.com/sidearmstats/wvball
 
UAA PROBABLE STARTERS (2024 stats)
S—Kadyn Osborne, 5-10, Sr. (5.04 aps, 2.24 dps, 0.38 ace/set)
RS—Larssen Anderson, 6-0, Jr. (2.12 kps, .220 att%, 0.47 bps)
OH—Katie Birtcil, 6-0, Sr. (2.14 kps, .124 att%, 3.03 dps, 0.38 ace/set)
OH—Tia Allen, 5-11, Jr. (2.24 kps, .206 att%, 2.97 dps)
OH—Bethany Tuchardt, 6-2, Sr. (2.25 kps, .234 att%, 0.60 bps)
MB—Leilani Elder, 5-10, Sr. (1.41 kps, .174 att%, 1.05 bps)
L—Madison Galloway, 5-4, Jr. (4.00 dps, 1.06 aps, .940 rec%)
 
FIRST-HALF FINALE IN FBX: The Alaska Anchorage volleyball team concludes the first half of the 18-match Great Northwest Athletic Conference schedule this week with a road contest against arch-rival Alaska Fairbanks ... the winner of Thursday's showdown will stand fourth place in the league standings with nine matches remaining.
 
THE SERIES vs UAF: UAA leads 80-38 overall, 34-25 in Fairbanks
Last: UAA 3-1 (11/16/23 at UAA) / Streak: UAA 4
Notes: UAA has won nine of the last 13 meetings, following a 16-match win streak from 2010-18 ... UAA has won two straight and four of the last five at the Patty Center ... UAA leads 32-12 in GNAC meetings (since 2001) ... teams have played at least twice per season since 1980.
 
A LOOK AT THE 'NOOKS: Picked sixth in the GNAC preseason poll, Alaska Fairbanks has cooled slightly, losing two in a row and going 3-4 on the heels of a nine-match win streak ... the Nanooks are led by veteran hitters Karli Nielson (3.30 kps, .261 att%, 2.43 dps, 0.46 bps) and Rilee White (2.51 kps, .195 att%, 0.44 ace/set, 2.10 dps).
 
ABOUT LAST WEEK: The Seawolves forged a split of their tough home series against Northwest Nazarene and Central Washington at the Alaska Airlines Center last week ... on Thursday, Sr. OH Bethany Tuchardt collected six of her 13 kills in the fourth set as UAA closed out the Nighthawks 20-25, 25-20, 25-15, 25-23 ... Jr. RS Larssen Anderson had 10 kills on .350 hitting, and Sr. OH Tia Allen had 7 kills, 12 digs and career highs of 6 aces and 5 block assists ... Sr. MB Leilani Elder tied her career high and established a UAA season best with 8 block assists, along with career highs from Sr. S Kadyn Osborne (18 digs) and Jr. L Madison Galloway (9 assists) ... on Saturday, Allen and Sr. OH Katie Birtcil each finished with 12 kills and 19 digs, but the Central Washington pulled out all three close sets to win 26-24, 18-25, 25-22, 25-23 ... Allen hit a season-best .379, and Elder tied her career high with 11 kills as UAA became just the second GNAC team to take a set from CWU this season.
 
TEAM NOTES: UAA ranks second in the GNAC in opponent attack percentage at .177, having held four foes under .100 ... UAA is no lower than 6th in all seven of the GNAC's major stats categories, including second in aces (1.99) and digs (16.26) per set as well ... the Seawolves tied a program mark by not allowing any blocks against UNC Pembroke, while the 19 digs allowed against Felician were UAA's second-fewest since 2019 ... the Seawolves are 25-23 against AVCA Top 25 teams since 2014, now with a six-match losing skid after their loss to Chaminade ... the Seawolves are 104-26 (.800) at the Alaska Airlines Center since the arena's opening in Sept. 2014, and 151-38 (.799) at home since 2009.
 
'WOLF BITES: Sr. MB Leilani Elder is back for her final campaign as the Seawolves' lone fourth-year senior in 2024 ... the Kansas City native recently broke into UAA's career top 15 in both block assists (11th, 238) and total blocks (14th, 268) ... Elder tied her career high with 11 kills on .400 hitting to key the victory over Augustana, and currently ranks 7th in the GNAC with 1.05 bps ... Jr. L Madison Galloway ranks 5th in the GNAC with 4.00 digs per set, producing double figures in 16 of 18 matches ... Galloway is trying to become the first Seawolf since Taylor Noga in 2018 to average at least 4.00 dps ... Jr. OH Tia Allen leads UAA with six double-doubles, including a 15-kills/14-dig effort to lead the win over Slippery Rock ... last week, Allen became just the sixth Seawolf since 2008 to register 6 aces in a 4-set match, and she committed just one attack error in 61 total attempts ... Allen ranks 12th in the GNAC with 2.97 dps ... after missing the majority of last season with a wrist injury and redshirting, Jr. RS Larssen Anderson has made a solid return, earning GNAC Offensive Player of the Week for her effort in Hawaii .... the former Dimond High star has hit better than .300 in seven matches thus far, including a .357 effort for a career-high 14 kills in the win at Augustana and .450 at MSUB ... Sr. S Kadyn Osborne ranks 10th in the league with 5.04 assists per set, sharing time with Fr. S Hannah Trotter in UAA's 6-2 offensive system ... Osborne also ranks 12th with 0.38 aces per set after her 6 aces against UNC Pembroke tied for third-best on UAA's single-match list ... Trotter (10th, 0.42) and Sr. OH Katie Birtcil (15th, 0.38) give UAA three of the top 15 in the GNAC aces stats ... a grad transfer from New Mexico State, Birtcil has five double-doubles thus far, spearheading the 3-1 win over Saint Martin's with 12 kills and 15 digs.
 
EYES ON MEISNER: After six seasons as the program's top assistant, former Seawolf standout Stacie Meisner returns for her second turn as UAA's head coach in 2024 ... 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.
 
2024 Individual Honors
TIA ALLEN
Augustana Classic All-Tournament Team
LARSSEN ANDERSON
GNAC Offensive Player of the Week, Aug. 25-31
MADISON GALLOWAY
Augustana Classic All-Tournament Team
KADYN OSBORNE
Augustana Classic All-Tournament Team
BETHANY TUCHARDT
Ice Block Classic All-Tournament Team