Sept. 27, 2008
Box Score
FAIRBANKS — The Alaska Nanooks took a line from their game plan — “ATTACK THEM ... Again & Again & Again” — to heart when it mattered most on Saturday afternoon against archrival Alaska Anchorage.
With the tense 2-hour, 10-minute match in the balance, a pair of kills from substitute Heather Lyons — a former Seawolf — and a clinching hit by Megan Thigpen keyed a come-from-behind five-set win before 370 fans at the Patty Center.
“We had the energy, we had the emotion, we had the motivation to just win every single point,” Lyons said of the fifth-set drama. “We didn’t wait for them to make mistakes. We just did our jobs and we took it to them.”
Lyons, a junior outside hitter who played for UAA in 2005 and 2006, entered the match late in the second set and responded by collecting 10 kills and 12 digs. The two most crucial kills came back-to-back after UAA had erased a four-point deficit to forge a 12-12 tie in the fifth set.
On their second match point, Thigpen sent a blast from the back row that a Seawolf digger got her hand on. The ball ricocheted off the ceiling and several Seawolves frantically tried to chase it down, to no avail.
“I wanted to end the game right there, we didn’t want to go extra so I just put it down, ” Thigpen said after the draining 25-22, 13-25, 23-25, 25-20, 15-13 victory, the Nanooks’ fourth straight over the Seawolves.
“They were aggressive. They kept swinging at the ball and we didn’t,” Anchorage first-year coach Chris Green said. “We played not to lose and they played to win.”
Said Thigpen (10 kills and 11 digs): “You gotta be the aggressor and that’s what we kept telling ourselves.”
UAA, however, seized the lead as senior outside hitter Rhea Cardwell knocked down 14 of her match-high 26 kills (on 64 attempts) in the second and third sets.
The Nanooks needed to make adjustments to correct “horrid” passing, coach Phil Shoemaker said. Late in the disastrous second set they brought in Lyons for Melissa Refuerzo (an Anchorage native) and freshman defensive specialist Jennifer Holland for Hannah Armstrong of Eagle River.
“Hannah and Mel are usually very reliable passers, but for some reason they weren’t today, so we made the switches ... and things turned out well. We got it turned around,” Shoemaker said.
Subbing in freshman outside hitter Marybeth Wikander was not an option because the Oregon native was away at her brother’s wedding.
With Lyons on a mission and seldom-used Holland diving all over to gather 13 digs, the Nanooks extended the match to a winner-take-all fifth set.
Holland, the shortest player on either roster at 5-foot-3, was thrilled for the opportunity.
“You never know going into the match. You just have to be prepared and play your best if you go in, and if not then cheer on your teammates,” she said.
Holland, of Sterling, learned the Nanooks’ system as a redshirt last year.
“Holly’s a hard worker, a really good athlete,” Shoemaker said. “It was time for us to see what she could do in a game.”
The Nanooks improved to 9-4 overall and are now tied for third place at 3-1 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. The improved Seawolves, who made 15 service errors and did not get consistent offense from anyone other than Cardwell, slipped to 10-6, 2-1.
A rematch is set for Oct. 15 in Anchorage.
“It was definitely an emotional match I think for everyone,” Lyons said. “Because now we have bragging rights in Alaska, so that’s huge.”
