Box Score
FAIRBANKS, AK – The University of Alaska Anchorage used 16 kills from Jackie Matthisen to defeat the Nanooks 3-0 on Saturday night at the Patty Center. The Nanooks dropped all three contests by the score of 25-21 to drop to 8-9 overall and 2-4 in the GNAC.
The Nanooks opened up an 18-13 first set lead before the Seawolves went on a 12-3 run to win the first set 25-21. The Nanooks committed seven errors and only recorded nine kills in the set. The Seawolves hit .243 as a team compared to only .053 for the Nanooks to gain a one set advantage.
Anchorage opened up the second set and took control as they took a late 22-15 lead before the Nanooks would stage a late comeback. The Nanooks went on a 4-0 run to close the gap to only three before the Seawolves finished the set.
Jessica Hill (Colorado Springs, CO) paced the way for the Nanooks in the set with eight kills and only one error as the Blue and Gold hit .368 for the set. Not to be outdone, the Seaswolves committed only two errors and hit .419 as a team to go up 2-0.
The third set saw nine different lead changes before Anchorage took the lead for good when they went up 17-16 en route to winning the match. The Seawolves opened up a 5-1 lead before the Nanooks stormed back with a 4-0 run capped by a
Jessica Hill kill. Anchorage fought back and took their biggest lead of the match at 24-19 before winning 25-21.
Alaska coach
Phil Shoemaker felt Anchorage did what they needed to do to win. “They were very efficient,” said Shoemaker, “They did what they do and they did it pretty well.”
The teams combined for 12 blocks, with the Nanooks having five and the Seawolves having seven.
Erica Gage (Palo Alto, CA) led the blocking attack for the Nanooks with two solo blocks.
Coach Shoemaker felt that the Seawolves were very effective around the net, “Anchorage was really steady and I really liked their blocking,” stated Shoemaker, “It was not like they blocked a lot more than we did, but they had a most consistent presence at the net.”
The Nanooks were led by senior
Jessica Hill who had 14 kills and only four errors to hit a team high .312 for the match. Senior outside hitter
Megan Thigpen (Spokane, WA) was the only Nanook to reach double figures in digs with ten as she also had 11 kills while senior setter
Alexa Sherman (Calabasas, CA) had 33 assists and five digs in the loss.
Alaska Anchorage was led by Jackie Matthisen who had a match high 16 kills and seven digs. Stacie Meisner had a team high ten digs while Calli Scott had 32 assists in the win.
The Nanooks will return to action on October 15 when they travel to Nampa, ID to take on Northwest Nazarene. Match time is set for 5:00 PM Alaska time.
