Box Score FAIRBANKS – Led by a potent offense, the No. 15 nationally ranked Western Washington Vikings powered past Alaska Nanooks, 0-3, on Thursday night at the Patty Center in the Nanooks penultimate Great Northwest Athletic Conference game of the year.
Alaska (3-22, 3-14 GNAC) lost in straight sets to Western Washington (20-6, 13-4 GNAC) by scores of 14-25, 9-25 and 18-25. With Western Oregon's win over Seattle Pacific earlier tonight, the Nanooks slip into a tie, with Wolves, for eighth in the GNAC.
The Nanooks were poor offensively, as they hit for just a .042 hitting percentage, including 22 errors on the attack. Such a high volume of errors (including nine more service errors) was unacceptable in head coach
Mallory Larranaga's eyes.
Said the coach, "We need to take care of us. 22 errors in the attack is almost an entire set of points that we are giving them. It doesn't matter who is on the other side of the net if we don't do our jobs."
Sam Harthun posted a team high 10 kills while
Riley Podowicz had the team's highest hitting percentage at .278 (six kills on 18 attacks).
For the Vikings, Kayla Erickson and Rachel Roeder led the way by more than a microscopic amount. Each posted staggering hitting percentages of .579 and .417 on 12 and 11 kills apiece.
The Nanooks, who struggled to cope with the attack, particularly in the first two sets, were led defensively by a trio of players who posted double-digit digs. Libero
Samantha Hesterman recorded a team-high 14 while
Tessa Butterfield and Harthun had 11 and 10, respectively.
Samantha Hutchinson, un-pompously and quietly, recorded a match-high 18 digs for the Vikings.
Discipline was the goal for the Nanooks in the third set, as they recorded 14 kills in the set alone, higher than the previous two combined (seven and six).
"Our mindset in the third set was 'go'," said Hesterman. "Sometimes we get caught up and we hesitate, but we just need to focus on doing our jobs."
Alaska will end the regular season on Saturday, at 7:00 p.m. against Simon Fraser at the Patty Center. The match will serve as Senior Night, where the Nanooks will honor their lone senior,
Tessa Butterfield.
