Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
LACEY, WA — The Alaska Nanooks averted disaster on Saturday with a come-from-behind volleyball win over last-place Saint Martin’s in Lacey, Wash.
“Relief is a good word,” Alaska coach Phil Shoemaker said of his team salvaging a split in its two-game Great Northwest Athletic Conference road trip.
Saint Martin’s came in on an eight-match losing streak but grabbed the first two sets by identical 25-18 scores.
“We got outplayed,” Shoemaker said of the opening two sets. “We just didn’t have a strong effort and they were more ready to win than we were.”
During the 10-minutes intermission between sets two and three, the Nanooks decided to make a host of lineup changes — middle blocker Erica Gage came in, outside hitter Marybeth Wikander moved to the middle, Korlyn Bolster exited and freshman Simone Chavous entered at outside hitter.
“All those changes made us look pretty smart as coaches,” Shoemaker said. “I just think we changed our personality when we made the lineup changes. We became more confident.”
Alaska assumed command of the match and won the final three sets 25-21, 25-18 and 15-8.
“We just started putting more pressure on them than they were putting on us,” Shoemaker said.
The Saints, however, hardly played like the GNAC cellar-dwellers.
“They were very scrappy, they were very determined, they fought hard,” Shoemaker said.
The Nanooks, who improved to 10-5 overall and 4-2 in the GNAC, may take some lessons from the match against the Saints (2-11, 0-5).
“Hopefully we learned that you want to be the determining team, the aggressor,” Shoemaker said. “Hopefully they learned that we have the ability to come back.”
Megan Thigpen led the Nanooks with 14 kills while Jessica Hill contributed 11. Chavous recorded eight kills in 16 attempts and added 10 digs.
And Gage controlled the net with six blocks in three sets of action.
“She gave us something we had been missing. We did not block well the first two games,” Shoemaker said.
The Nanooks now return to Fairbanks for a tough homestand against two of the three teams they trail in the league. They’ll meet Central Washington (12-5, 4-1) on Thursday and Western Washington on Saturday. WWU is 12-0 and ranked fourth in NCAA Division II.
