Sept. 14, 2008
Box Score
By Matias Saari Published Sunday, September 14, 2008
BILLINGS, MT - Battling fatigue and sloppiness near the end, Alaska's run through the Montana State-Billings Invitational was hardly a work of art. But the volleyball Nanooks will certainly take the result: a 4-1 record and a tie for first place.
"It was really good in terms of a character-builder," coach Phil Shoemaker said Saturday by telephone. "We used our full 11 players who went with us, and we had to battle through some injuries. ... There were a lot of positives."
As a bonus, the Nanooks wound up tied with Northern State (whom they beat on Friday) and Hawaii Hilo (whom they were soundly beaten by) in the six-team tournament where they played five matches in less than 48 hours.
"They just left it at a tie, I guess," Shoemaker said. "They had no tiebreaker process."
Maybe that's just as well, as the Nanooks were edged out by Ashland University on a tiebreaker in their Nanook Classic last weekend.
Alaska (7-3) set itself up on Saturday for a happy, albeit weary, trip home by edging Notre Dame de Namur in five sets and sweeping University of Mary.
"Silly" was the word Shoemaker used for the Nanooks almost blowing a huge lead against Notre Dame before prevailing 25-13, 25-18, 19-25, 24-26, 15-13.
"Quite honestly, we certainly have the talent that we should have won that thing in three (sets)," Shoemaker said. "It was really a tough, frustrating match. You feel like you're in control the whole time, but you're not."
The Nanooks closed it out on a bizarre play that perfectly summed up the match, Shoemaker said. With the outcome in the balance, setter Alexa Sherman attempted a pass to Korlyn Bolster but sent it too far. The Notre Dame defense, however, went to block Bolster instead of hammering back the rare over-set and the ball landed on its side of the court for Alaska's clinching point.
"It just kind of fell at their feet," Shoemaker said.
In their finale, the Nanooks cleaned up their game a bit in defeating University of Mary 25-20, 25-17, 25-18.
"We had some very tired girls by the end of the match. We certainly don't have to worry about whether they're going to bed (Saturday night)," Shoemaker said.
Bolster, a senior middle blocker, was named to the all-tournament team after accumulating 60 kills and recording a high hitting percentage.
"She definitely earned it," Shoemaker said. "She clearly was our offensive leader and we just needed to try to get her the ball."
Now, the Nanooks need to rest up and get healthy leading into their Great Northwest Athletic Conference home openers Thursday against Seattle Pacific and Saturday against Northwest Nazarene.
"We'll definitely keep most of the players on the sidelines until Tuesday," Shoemaker said.
