THIS WEEK IN ALASKA ANCHORAGE VOLLEYBALL...
 
Thursday, Oct. 10 — 7 pm ADT — Alaska Airlines Center — Anchorage, AK
Northwest Nazarene (5-8, 2-3 GNAC) at Alaska Anchorage (9-7, 3-3 GNAC)
&
Saturday, Oct. 12 — 7 pm ADT — Alaska Airlines Center — Anchorage, AK
Central Washington (7-4, 5-0 GNAC [Thu. @UAF]) at Alaska Anchorage
 
TICKETS: GoSeawolves.com ... Alumni get in free Saturday (see below)
LIVE VIDEO: youtube.com/UAASeawolves
LIVE STATS: GoSeawolves.com/sidearmstats/wvball
 
UAA PROBABLE STARTERS (2024 stats)
S—Kadyn Osborne, 5-10, Sr. (4.97 aps, 2.17 dps, 0.42 ace/set)
RS—Larssen Anderson, 6-0, Jr. (2.12 kps, .219 att%, 0.44 bps)
OH—Katie Birtcil, 6-0, Sr. (2.09 kps, .123 att%, 2.86 dps, 0.39 ace/set)
OH—Tia Allen, 5-11, Jr. (2.22 kps, .194 att%, 2.85 dps)
OH—Bethany Tuchardt, 6-2, Sr. (2.23 kps, .234 att%, 0.52 bps)
MB—Leilani Elder, 5-10, Sr. (1.33 kps, .156 att%, 1.02 bps)
L—Madison Galloway, 5-4, Jr. (3.97 dps, 0.98 aps, .931 rec%)
 
BACK HOME FOR HOMECOMING: Coming off its first back-to-back GNAC wins of the season, the Alaska Anchorage volleyball team returns to the Alaska Airlines Center this week to face Northwest Nazarene and league-leading Central Washington in 7 p.m. opening serves Thursday and Saturday ... as part of homecoming week, Saturday's match will be Alumni Night, sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences ... alumni get in free, plus up to three guests for $5 each, with code ALUMNI.
 
THE SERIES...
vs NNU: UAA leads 26-20 overall, 17-6 in Anchorage
Last: NNU 3-2 (11/9/23 at NNU) / Streak: NNU 1
Notes: NNU snapped a 10-match losing streak with last year's 5-set win in Nampa ... UAA has won nine straight at home since NNU took the initial meeting at the Alaska Airlines Center in 2014 ... UAA has won 13 of the last 16 meetings ... the last five meetings have gone at least four sets ... 14 of the last 16 and 24 of the last 28 matches have been 4- or 5-setters ... UAA leads 25-19 in GNAC meetings (since 2001) … NNU won first meeting in 2000, 3-1, in Nampa.
 
vs CWU: UAA leads 31-24 overall, 16-11 in Anchorage
Last: CWU 3-1 (11/11/23 at CWU) / Streak: CWU 2
Notes: Teams have split the last six meetings, with CWU sweeping last year's season series ... CWU won 3-0 last year in Anchorage ... of the 31 meetings since 2008, 11 have gone 5 sets and eight have gone 4 sets, with the Seawolves winning 16 of those 19 contests ... the teams are tied 22-22 in GNAC matches … teams have met every season since 1999 ... first meeting was a 2-1 UAA neutral-court win in 1980 ... teams did not meet between 1983-98.
 
SCOUTING REPORT: Picked seventh in the GNAC preseason poll, Northwest Nazarene has suffered through three- and four-match losing skids thus far, and is coming off a 3-0 home loss to Central Washington on Saturday ... the Nighthawks, from Nampa, Idaho, are led by Lily Kinloch (2.56 kps, .201 att%) and Maren Machado (2.40 kps, .203 att%, 3.53 dps, 0.47 ace/set) ... the lone GNAC team receiving votes in the national poll and the last unbeaten in league play, Central Washington has won 15 of its 16 sets against GNAC competition thus far ... the Wildcats are led by Marianna Payne (2.98 kps, .195 att%, 1.37 dps, .049 bps) and Emma Daoud-Hebert (2.26 kps, .489 att%, 0.98 bps).
 
ROAD WARRIORS: Playing on the road for the 13th and 14th times in 16 matches, the Seawolves found success with their initial GNAC road sweep of the season last week, beating Montana State Billings 27-25, 25-19, 25-23 and Seattle Pacific 25-22, 18-25, 25-23, 27-25 ... on Thursday, Jr. RS Larssen Anderson had 10 kills on .450 hitting and Sr. OH Bethany Tuchardt notched 9 kills on .389 hitting and 4 block assists to earn a seventh straight sweep of the Yellowjackets ... Jr. L Madison Galloway had 17 digs and a career-high 8 assists, while Fr. S Hannah Trotter had 11 digs and a career-high 4 aces ... on Saturday, UAA pulled out each close set behind double-doubles from Jr. OH Tia Allen (12 kills/16 digs/2 aces) and Sr. OH Katie Birtcil (12 kills/career-high-tying 21 digs), along with 11 kills on .370 hitting and 5 total blocks by Tuchardt ... the Seawolves won despite being outhit (.163 to .157), getting 16 digs and a career-high 4 aces from Galloway.
 
'WOLF BITES: 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 and currently ranking 20th in the league with a .219 attack pct. .... the former Dimond High star has hit better than .300 in six matches thus far, including a .357 effort for a career-high 14 kills in the win at Augustana and .450 last week at MSUB ... 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 (t-11th, 229) and total blocks (14th, 258) ... Elder tied her career high with 11 kills on .400 hitting to key the victory over Augustana, and currently ranks 6th in the GNAC with 1.02 bps ... Jr. L Madison Galloway ranks 5th in the GNAC with 3.97 digs per set, producing double figures in 14 of 16 matches ... Galloway recorded 5.20 dps as UAA went 3-0 in Fairbanks three weeks ago, collecting a career-high 26 digs to spearhead the win over Slippery Rock, and she averaged 4.71 dps last week to aid the road sweep of MSUB and SPU ... Jr. OH Tia Allen leads UAA with five double-doubles, producing her best week with 2.80 kps on .254 hitting and 2.70 dps at the Ice Block Classic ... Allen ranks 13th in the GNAC with 2.85 dps ... Sr. S Kadyn Osborne ranks 10th in the league with 4.97 assists per set, sharing time with Fr. S Hannah Trotter in UAA's 6-2 offensive system ... Osborne also ranks 9th with 0.45 aces per set after her 6 aces against UNC Pembroke tied for third-best on UAA's single-match list ... Trotter (8th, 0.44) and Sr. OH Katie Birtcil (11th, 0.39) give UAA three of the top 11 in the GNAC aces stats ... a grad transfer from New Mexico State, Birtcil has four double-doubles thus far, spearheading the 3-1 win over Saint Martin's with 12 kills and 15 digs.
 
TEAM NOTES: UAA ranks second in the GNAC in opponent attack percentage at .174, having held four foes under .100 ... UAA is no lower than 7th in all seven of the GNAC's major stats categories, including second in aces (1.93) and digs (15.68) 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 103-25 (.805) at the Alaska Airlines Center since the arena's opening in Sept. 2014, and 150-37 (.802) at home since 2009.
 
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