Oct. 8, 2006
Box Score
By Matias Saari, Sports Writer, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Published October 8, 2006
Posted in Sports, College
The Alaska Nanooks not only pulled out a dramatic five-game match over Western Oregon Saturday night at the Patty Center, but they suddenly find themselves in the middle of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings.
Alaska used clutch play in avoiding a two-game deficit early on, made a key substitution in setter Sedra Zlock and showed killer instinct by finally putting away the feisty Wolves.
The result -- a 25-30, 32-30, 30-25, 29-31, 15-11 victory in more than 2 1/2 hours -- created their first two-game win streak since the final two matches of the 2004 season, and puts Alaska in a three-way tie for fourth place in the GNAC. Three days ago, the Nanooks sat alone in the seventh spot.
"If things fall according to plan, we can be in fourth place (alone) when we wake up (next) Thursday morning," said Shoemaker. "Wouldn't that be a change?"
The win streak has a realistic chance of continuing as the Nanooks, 5-11 overall and 4-5 in the GNAC, travel to Anchorage on Wednesday for a meeting with the struggling Seawolves, who won their first conference match over St. Martins Saturday but still sit tied for last at 4-13, 1-8.
On Saturday, the Nanooks earned a little revenge against never-say-die Western Oregon (4-5, 6-13), which topped Alaska Sept. 21 on its home court. The Wolves also beat Alaska 15-11 in the fifth game on Oct. 29, 2005 after coming back from two games down.
"It's a bit of a litmus test," Shoemaker said of the importance of Saturday's win. "It you want people to call you a good team, then you've got to beat good teams. And Western's a good team. It's another confidence booster."
Alaska junior Megan Thigpen had 14 kills and 27 digs while junior Jenna Jones from Fairbanks tallied 16 kills and 11 digs.
The Nanooks got off to a tough start on Saturday, dropping the opening game after Western Oregon broke a 21-21 tie with a 9-4 game-ending run.
Then Alaska came perilously close to falling behind by two games heading to intermission. The Wolves held game point at 30-29 before a double block on Western's star outside hitter Shakira Jenkins tied the score. Alaska co-captain Jessica King, redeeming herself somewhat for her seven service errors on the night, then recorded a kill to put her team ahead and made a diving dig before Western sailed a shot inches past the baseline to hand Alaska game two.
"You don't want to be down 0-2, not against a team of this quality," said Shoemaker.
Alaska trailed 21-18 in game three before scoring four straight to take a lead it did not relinquish. Joe Houck, the often-agitated head coach for Western, drew a yellow card for disputing an official's call that put Alaska ahead, 22-21.
Providing many of the sets was Zlock, a sophomore who has seen little playing time lately in favor of freshman Alexa Sherman. Zlock was inserted early in the game and finished with 31 assists and 13 digs.
"She came in and did exactly what we needed," said Shoemaker, adding that Zlock is a better blocker than Sherman. "She infused some confidence into the team."
Zlock, last year's regular setter, kept herself ready in case she was summoned.
"It's always hard to watch from the bench, but that's something you can control," she said.
It was Western Oregon's turn for dramatics in game four, as the Nanooks were two points from the match several times before a booming kill from Jenkins (21 kills on the night) and another from Lisa Martini evened the match and set up a deciding game five.
Alaska never trailed in the final game -- though Western rallied to within one at 10-9 -- and Korlyn Bolster's game-winning kill sent the team into a group hug and the Nanooks faithful home happy.
"That (match) was everything, and more, that I thought it would be," said Shoemaker.
