THIS WEEK IN ALASKA ANCHORAGE VOLLEYBALL...
 
Thursday, Nov. 6 — 7 pm AST — Alaska Airlines Center — Anchorage, AK
#8 Simon Fraser (17-2, 11-2 GNAC) at Alaska Anchorage (17-5, 8-4 GNAC)
&
Saturday, Nov. 8 — 7 pm AST — Alaska Airlines Center — Anchorage, AK
#14 Western Washington (17-3, 11-2 GNAC [Thu. @UAF]) at Alaska Anchorage
 
LIVE VIDEO: All UAA home contests and GNAC road contests are streamed through the GNAC Network portal at Hudl – gnacnetwork.com/uaaseawolves ... fans can choose between a single event ($12), a 30-day subscription ($25) or a yearly subscription ($120).
 
LIVE STATS: GoSeawolves.com/sidearmstats/wvball
 
TICKETS: GoSeawolves.com
 
PROMOTIONS & SPECIAL EVENTS: Saturday's match is Alumni Night, sponsored by ConocoPhillips and the UAA College of Engineering ... UAA alumni receive one complementary ticket and up to three guest tickets for $5 each, using code ALUMNI on checkout.
 
UAA PROBABLE STARTERS (2025 stats)
S—Johana Malikova, 5-10, Fr. (7.87 aps, 2.56 dps, 0.30 ace/set)
OH—Lee Ivakina, 6-0, Jr. (3.03 kps, .196 att%, 3.01 dps, 0.53 bps)
OH—Tia Allen, 5-11, Sr. (3.16 kps, .207 att%, 3.21 dps, 0.30 ace/set)
RS—Emma Beck, 5-1, Fr. (2.15 kps, .206 att%, 0.86 bps)
MB—Bella Burney, 6-0, Jr. (1.73 kps, .278 att%, 1.00 bps)
MB—Martina Riba, 6-0, So. (1.63 kps, .260 att%, 1.14 bps, 0.28 ace/set)
L—Madison Galloway, 5-4, Sr. (4.03 dps, 0.87 aps, 0.30 ace/set, .954 rec%)
 
HUNTING UPSETS: The Alaska Anchorage volleyball team enters the homestretch of the season with critical matches this week against league leaders Simon Fraser and Western Washington at the Alaska Airlines Center ... currently with a 1-4 mark against the top four teams in the standings, the Seawolves are in need of an upset or two to impress the NCAA selection committee.
 
THE SERIES...
vs SFU: UAA leads 22-7 overall, 11-3 in Anchorage
Last: UAA 3-2 (10/11/25 at SFU)
Streak: UAA 2
Notes: SFU has won three of the last five meetings at the Alaska Airlines Center, although UAA earned a 3-0 upset of an NCAA Tourney-bound Red Leafs squad in last year's season finale ... UAA won the first 15 matches in series history ... UAA leads 7-3 at the Alaska Airlines Center ... 11 of the last 16 meetings have gone four or five sets ... SFU joined the GNAC in 2010.
 
vs WWU: WWU leads 42-22 overall, 22-12 in Anchorage
Last: WWU 3-1 (10/9/25 at WWU)
Streak: WWU 1
Notes: UAA won 3-0 last year at home to earn just its third sweep of WWU in the rally scoring era (since 2001) ... WWU leads 7-4 at the Alaska Airlines Center ... 13 of the last 17 matches have gone four or five sets, including UAA's NCAA Regional finals victory in 2016 and WWU's NCAA First Round victory in 2017 ... there have been seven 5-setters and only five sweeps among the last 25 meetings ... the road team has won 15 of the last 27 meetings, although the home team has won the last three tilts ... WWU won 17 straight from 2001-08 … teams have met every year since 2000 … series started in 1980.
 
SCOUTING REPORT: No. 8 Simon Fraser appears headed for an NCAA Tournament berth and is in contention for its first GNAC title, having suffered both of its losses in five sets to fellow playoff contenders (at CWU & vs UAA) ... winners of five in a row, the Red Leafs are led by Sr. OH Natalie Lemoine-Sells (3.21 kps, .253 att%, 0.69 bps) and Sr. OH Davida Hill (2.95 kps, .216 att%, 2.53 dps) ... No. 14 Western Washington heads into Thursday's match at No. 20 UAF with four straight wins, suffering its two league losses at Saint Martin's (3-0) and at Simon Fraser (3-2) ... also in excellent position for a playoff bid, the Vikings are led by Sr. OH Devyn Oestreich (4.04 kps, .308 att%, 3.89 dps) and Jr. OH Delaney Speer (3.62 kps, .239 att%, 3.25 dps).
 
ABOUT LAST WEEK: UAA got off to a hot start, but No. 20 Alaska Fairbanks came back to earn a 17-25, 25-19, 25-22, 25-22 over the Seawolves in their lone match last week at the Alaska Airlines Center ... Jr. OH Lee Ivakina had 17 kills on .311 hitting and 13 kills, but the visitors pulled out tight third and fourth sets to earn the season sweep ... Sr. OH Tia Allen had 13 kills and So. MB Martina Riba had a career-high 12 kills on .476 hitting in the loss.
 
TEAM NOTES: The Seawolves received 10 votes in this week's AVCA NCAA Div. II top-25 poll, putting them in 35th position ... UAA has clinched the program's 17th winning record in the last 18 seasons ... UAA's 13-1 mark equaled the program's second-best record after 14 matches, along with the 2016 and 2022 GNAC title squads ... the Seawolves rank top-100 (of 275 teams) nationally in every primary statistical category except kills per set (112th) ... UAA leads the GNAC defensively with 1.72 blocks and 1.13 aces allowed per set ... UAA's 11 straight Alaska Airlines Center victories – from Nov. 21, 2024 to Sept. 27, 2025 – were the second-longest streak since the arena's opening in 2014 ... the Seawolves' 16 regular-season home matches this year are the most in 11 seasons of play at the Alaska Airlines Center ... UAA has finished top 10 nationally in average attendance every season since 2014, leading NCAA Div. II six times (2014, '15, '16, '17, '18, '24) and finishing second twice ... the Seawolves are 27-26 against AVCA Top 25 teams since 2014, including a 2-3 mark this year ... the Seawolves are 116-29 (.802) at the Alaska Airlines Center since the arena's opening in Sept. 2014, and 163-41 (.800) at home since 2009.
 
TIP-TOP TIA: An honorable mention All-GNAC performer as a junior at UAA in 2024 and as a sophomore at Saint Martin's in 2022, Sr. OH Tia Allen has produced double-doubles in 12 of 22 matches, including eight of 12 GNAC contests ... in the GNAC stats, Allen is 7th in kills (3.16 kps), 7th in points (3.60 pps) and 13th in digs (3.21 dps) ... the Clayton, Wash., native surpassed her collegiate career high with 23 kills recently at SMU, notching the most kills for a Seawolf since 2022 ... Allen is the 12th player in GNAC history (since 2001) to achieve career 1,000 marks in both kills (1,092) and digs (1,112), along with 100 aces (101) ... the Seawolves' representative on the GNAC Preseason All-Conference Team, Allen started the season with all-tournament honors at all three non-conference events, including the Most Outstanding Player award at the Seawolf Invitational.
 
MAD MONEY: UAA's lone fourth-year player, Sr. L Madison Galloway stands 7th in the GNAC stats with 4.03 digs per set, totaling double figures in 19 of 22 matches and 22-plus in four of the last six contests ... Galloway earned an all-tourney award and her first career GNAC Defensive Player of the Week honor after posting 4.24 dps and registering a .978 (88-of-90) serve-receive on opening weekend, and repeated her GNAC DPOW award with outstanding efforts at No. 20 WWU and No. 7 SFU (career-high 27 digs, 45-of-45 serve-receive) ... the Pensacola, Fla., native has also moved into 6th place on the UAA career digs list with 1,312, along with top-20 ranks in digs per set (16th, 3.14), sets played (15th, 418), matches played (t-20th, 113) and victories (15th, 76) ... Galloway has missed just one set her entire career, taking over as UAA's full-time libero last season.
 
LEAPIN' LEE: UAA has found a new full-rotation standout in Jr. OH Lee Ivakina (e-VOCK-in-ah), who premiered with all-tournament honors at both the Alaska/Hawaii Challenge and Seawolf Invitational ... from Bulgaria via Navarro (Texas) College, Ivakina has posted double-doubles in 13 of her first 22 NCAA matches, including a 15K/14D effort against Western Oregon and a 19K/16D line to propel the win at No. 7 Simon Fraser ... Ivakina ranks 8th in the GNAC in kills (3.03 kps), 9th in points (3.55 pps), and 17th in digs (3.01 dps).
 
'WOLF BITES: Jr. MB Bella Burney has been a consistent force at the net, ripping at least five kills in all but two contests ... the Tumwater, Wash., product leads UAA and ranks 8th in the GNAC stats with a .278 attack pct., while she's 10th in the league with 1.00 blocks per set ... Burney has also moved into UAA's career top 20 in both block assists (t-16th, 207) and total blocks (18th, 208) ... So. Martina Riba was an all-tourney performer at the Seawolf Invitational and recorded plus-.400 attack percentages in both of UAA's non-conference wins in Fairbanks ... the Barcelona native has registered at least six kills in 17 matches, while hitting over .300 in nine of the last 14 contests ... Riba leads UAA and ranks 6th in the GNAC with 1.14 blocks per set, while she's 14th in attack percentage at .260 ... Fr. RS Emma Beck delivered UAA's best attack pct (min. 12 kills) since Sept. 15, 2023 with her .520 (14-1-25) effort against Biola, and bettered that with a .538 (8-1-13) mark at MSUB ... a former Alaska Gatorade Player of the Year from Kenai, Beck ranks 16th in the GNAC in blocks (0.86 bps), producing at least six kills in 14 of the last 15 matches ... Fr. S Johana Malikova ranks 4th in the league with 7.87 assists per set, while So. S Hannah Trotter is 5th with 7.76 aps ... Jr. DS/OH Elena Hansen has emerged as a key rotation piece in her first year with the program ... a transfer from Limestone, Hansen ranks 10th in the GNAC with 0.36 aces per set, while producing 1.65 digs per set as well.
 
EYES ON MEISNER: Former Seawolf standout Stacie Meisner is in her third turn as UAA's head coach in 2025 ... Meisner has piloted the Seawolves to a 49-34 record, including a 16-12 overall mark and 5th-place Great Northwest Athletic Conference finish 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.
 
2025 Individual Honors
TIA ALLEN
Preseason All-GNAC Team
Alaska/Hawaii Challenge All-Tournament Team
Seawolf Invitational Most Outstanding Player
Ice Block Classic All-Tournament Team
GNAC All-Academic Team
BELLA BURNEY
GNAC All-Academic Team
MADISON GALLOWAY
Alaska/Hawaii Challenge All-Tournament Team
GNAC Defensive Player of the Week, Aug. 25-31
GNAC Defensive Player of the Week, Oct. 6-12
GNAC All-Academic Team
LEE IVAKINA
Seawolf Invitational All-Tournament Team
MARTINA RIBA
Seawolf Invitational All-Tournament Team
HANNAH TROTTER
GNAC All-Academic Team