ANCHORAGE (Sept. 28) – Junior outside hitter
Tia Allen delivered 12 kills and 13 digs, but the Alaska Anchorage volleyball team could not complete its comeback attempt Saturday, falling 25-20, 27-25, 23-25, 25-22 to Western Oregon at the Alaska Airlines Center.
The Seawolves (7-7, 1-3 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) also got 11 kills on .222 hitting from
Bethany Tuchardt and a career-high 21 kills from fellow senior outside hitter
Katie Birtcil-Tipton as they were outhit .228 to .141.
The Wolves (9-3, 2-2) were led by 17 kills and 17 digs from Maela Honma and 14 kills from Madison Hornback as they snapped a 21-match losing skid in the series, earning their first win over UAA since 2012.
UAA played catchup all night as the visitors from Monmouth never allowed more than a tie score in the first two frames. A late second-set rally knotted it at 24-24 and 25-25 on kills by Tuchardt, but Honma and Hartsook answered with kills to clinch a 2-0 lead for the Wolves.
The third set featured no lead larger than three points as the teams fought to ties at every point between 17-17 and 22-22. After a WOU service error,
Leilani Elder registered a huge solo block of Chloe Asciutto for a 24-22 lead, and the Seawolves' lone fourth-year senior finished it off with a kill two rallies later.
UAA dug out of a 7-1 hole in the fourth to earn a 21-15 lead, but its momentum fizzled. Following a six-point WOU surge, Allen put the Seawolves up again with her final kill, only to see Honma smash two kills in a 4-0, match-ending run.
Sophomore
Bella Burney came one shy of her career high with 10 kills, while Elder collected six kills in the loss.
Senior setter
Kadyn Osborne dished 21 assists and matched her career high with 16 digs, freshman setter
Hannah Trotter had 18 assists and eight digs, and junior libero
Madison Galloway tallied 20 digs.
The Seawolves return to the road next week to face Montana State Billings on Thursday (5 p.m. ADT) and Seattle Pacific on Saturday (1 p.m. ADT). Find links to live video and stats for both matches at GoSeawolves.com.
