Box Score
HONOLULU, HI – The Alaska Nanooks put together their best mathc of the season on Friday night in their second encounter of the Equus Challenge in Honolulu, Hawaii. In a packed gym at Hawaii-Pacific the Nanooks jumped out to a 25-15 first game lead en route to a 3-0 sweep: their second sweep of the season. The Nanooks won their second straight match and improved to 5-4 on the season.
The Nanooks opened up the first set and rolled to a 25-15 victory. The Nanooks jumped out to a quick 10-4 lead and never looked back as they never led by less than five. The second set was the closest of the three, which saw Hawaii-Pacific push catch the Blue and Gold at 22-22, before Alaska ran off three straight points for the 2-0 lead. The Nanooks closed out the match by defeating Hawaii-Pacific 25-14 in the final set.
Seniors
Jessica Hill (Colorado Springs, CO) and
Megan Thigpen (Spokane, WA) each had nine kills and fellow senior
Heather Lyons (Anchorage, AK) had eight kills to help pace the Blue and Gold. Hill hit .409 for the match as the Nanooks out hit the Sea Warriors .245-.141 in the contest. Alaska also served up 10 aces while holding Hawaii- Pacific to just two. Senior setter
Alexa Sherman (Calabasas, CA) led the way with a double-double of 25 assists and 14 digs.
Head coach
Phil Shoemaker was very happy with his team's results. “We played really well. I am really happy,” coach Shoemaker said, “Hawaii-Pacific is a very good team and we came into a tough environment and played really well.”
Hawaii-Pacific was led by Julia Gruszecka with nine kills to go along with five digs. Tricia Yoshimura had a team high 19 digs and Madison Hardy had 16 assists in the loss.
The Nanooks will take the court on Saturday for a double-header when they battle Hawaii-Hilo for the second time of the season at 4:00 p.m. AKT. The Nanooks will then finish up their four-game Hawaii swing against BYU-Hawaii at 9:30 p.m. AKST.
