Box Score
Bellingham, Wash. - The Alaska Nanooks knew they had a big challenge across the net, facing the No. 25 Western Washington Vikings on their turf. They still put up a good fight though on Thursday night before falling in four sets at the hands of their hosts, 31-33, 25-23, 15-25 and 17-25. Seniors
Simone Chavous and
Karlee Skalla led the blue and gold with 14 and 12 kills, respectively.
The Nanooks also got eight kills and four block assists from junior middle blocker
Casey Tidwell, 49 assists from freshman setter
Becky Martin and a match-high 18 digs from libero
Allison Oddy.
"There were a lot of positives that came out of tonight's match," said head coach Phil Shoemaker. "There just weren't enough to get it done against a team of this caliber."
The match was tightly contested from the first serve although WWU managed to maintain a slight advantage through the middle of the first set. After a timeout, and trailing 19-15, Alaska got three straight kills from Tidwell and Skalla to make it 19-18 and then two more kills from the pair sandwiched on a WWU attacking error by Emily Jepsen knotted the game at 21 apiece.
Alaska denied WWU on six set points down the stretch but failed to capitalize on two of their own chances before a kill by Marlayna Geary sealed the deal, 33-31.
The Nanooks proved just as pesky for their hosts in the second set, never allowing them to open up a large run. When they found themselves down early on and towards the middle of the set, they rallied and stayed energetic and competitive.
At the exact same moment as the first set, the Nanooks found their spark and went on a 10-4 run to erase their 19-15 deficit. Sophomore
Keri Knight led the charge with three kills, while Tidwell put away two before one by Chavous set up the victory and Skalla pounded the set-winner to take it 25-23 and tie the match at 1-1.
After the break, the Vikings came out with better intensity and put the pressure on the Nanooks. Although they trailed early, it looked as though the blue and gold would close the gap once again but tough serving from their challengers and compounding attack errors let the Vikings run away with the third set 25-15.
The fourth set saw Western open an 11-3 lead before Alaska responded with a 7-1 run to make it 12-10. Despite their best efforts to keep it close, WWU's discipline and consistency proved to great for the Nanooks and they came up short 25-17 in the end.
"Western is really, really disciplined, but we certainly got their attention after the second set. They came out with a higher level of intensity and their serving coupled with our lack of response in serve receive was the difference in the third and fourth sets."
Alaska is still seeking its first win of the season and will fight to secure it Saturday night at 7 p.m. PDT at Simon Fraser. The Clan are also winless in 2011 after falling 3-0 to Alaska Anchorage Thursday night at home.
