by Matias Saari, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Published Sunday, August 31, 2008
FAIRBANKS, AK — Just 24 hours after being dominated by Central Missouri, the Alaska Nanooks made an emphatic statement Saturday about the volleyball team that they can be.
In a 2 hour, 15-minute match full of drama at the Patty Center, the Nanooks showed characteristics — the ability to come from behind, to keep their composure and to ultimately close a quality team out — that resulted in a 25-20, 22-25, 28-26, 25-22 triumph over the nationally 13th-ranked Jennies.
“That wasn’t us (Friday) and we wanted to show them who we really were,” Alaska junior setter Alexa Sherman said, calling the win one of her biggest since coming to Fairbanks.
“Confidence was the key. We definitely maintained that even when we were behind,” said senior middle hitter Korlyn Bolster, who led Alaska with 16 kills.
UCM had defeated the Nanooks in straight sets — scoring 75 points to Alaska’s 40 — on Thursday night.
But from the outset Saturday, it was clear the Nanooks were determined to not just be satisfied improving against Central Missouri. Alaska took a quick 5-1 lead, and after a seesaw battle, pulled out the first set after Hannah Armstrong’s dig set up a placement kill by Sherman.
In set two, the Nanooks were up 22-21 and had an opportunity take a commanding lead before the Jennies rallied to even the match with four straight points.
The match intensified after intermission. In the critical third set, Alaska held a 24-21 lead and had the fans on their feet. But Alaska wasted three set points — two from their hitting errors — and suddenly the Jennies led 25-24 with an opportunity to claim a 2-1 advantage in sets.
After several Alaska saves, Megan Thigpen’s kill staved off that set point. But the Nanooks faced another at 25-26 when Sherman made perhaps the play of the match.
A Nanook’s service reception landed in the middle of the net when Sherman somehow kept the ball in play, making a kill from Jessica Hill possible.
“I was like, ‘I need to get this out, pop it back in the middle. Wait for it to fall off the net before I went in to touch it,’” Sherman said.
Added Bolster: “When you’re focused like she was, impossible things seem possible.”
Given new life, the Nanooks closed out set three with an ace from Hannah Armstrong followed by a violation against a Jennies player for hitting the ball off the net’s left antenna.
“We just kept our composure. We were really calm. We were excited, we were pumped the whole time, but we still had that composure with us,” Sherman said of the third-set rollercoaster.
The Nanooks smelled victory, but they also had to deal with fatigue and a UCM squad determined to force a fifth-set tiebreaker. Alaska trailed 17-12 before an 8-1 run put them ahead for good and forced two Central Missouri timeouts.
Minutes later, Armstrong dealt the clinching blow, a serve that UCM let go hoping it would land beyond the baseline. It did not, and Alaska (1-1) could celebrate its first win of the 2008 campaign.
“I just asked them to do what they already know how to do,” Alaska coach Phil Shoemaker said of the stunning turnaround from the series opener. “The things that we work on in practice they just didn’t really show very much (Friday).”
Alaska’s Thigpen (13 kills and 17 digs) and Jessica Hill (14 kills and 10 digs) registered double-doubles, while Sherman had 41 assists and 12 digs and Armstrong held the back row down with 21 digs.
Central Missouri’s Peggy Martin, the winningest coach in NCAA Division II history, said the young Jennies came back poorly after Friday’s win.
“I thought (Alaska) came out ready to play. We were pretty flat. My fault. I didn’t have us very well prepared to play,” Martin said. “They just outplayed us all over the place.”
Asked whether it’s tough to avoid overconfidence, Martin responded: “Oh, for sure, especially young kids. You know, you tell ’em and you tell ’em and you tell ’em that it’s not going to be the same team out there, and they learned that the hard way.”
Alaska next hosts the Auto Service Classic on Friday and Saturday as Catawba, St. Cloud State and Ashland visit the Patty Center.
