FAIRBANKS, Alaska -- The official start of the 2015 Alaska Nanooks volleyball season is this weekend, as the team hosts the 2015 Flint Hills Resources Nanook Classic. The Nanooks three-match weekend kicks off on Friday at the Alaska Airlines Court, as Alaska takes on Minot State (N.D.) at 7:15 p.m. Alaska will double up on matches on Saturday, as the team plays Saint Joseph's College (Ind.) at 11 a.m. and St. Mary's (Texas) at 7 p.m.
The Nanooks will play three of the six matches that will take place this weekend at Alaska Airlines Court, as Saint Joseph's takes on St. Mary's to open the Nanook Classic at 5 p.m. on Friday. St. Mary's will start their two-match Saturday with Minot State at 1:15 p.m., while MSU will then close out their matches in the Classic with a 5 p.m. match against St. Joseph's.
| Date | Sept. 4 & 5, 2015 |
| Location | Alaska Airlines Court (Fairbanks, Alaska) |
| Participating Teams | Alaska | Minot State | Saint Joseph's | St. Mary's |
| Match Schedule | Friday: Saint Joseph's vs. St. Mary's, 5 p.m. | Alaska vs. Minot State, 7:15 p.m.
Saturday (Session One): Alaska vs. Saint Joseph's, 11 a.m. | Minot State vs. St. Mary's 1:15 p.m.
Saturday (Session Two): Saint Joseph's vs. Minot State, 5 p.m. | Alaska vs. St. Mary's, 7:15 p.m. |
| Match Notes | Alaska Notes |
| Tickets | Click Here |
| Live Streaming | Click Here |
| Social Media | Twitter | Facebook |
A New Era
The 2015 season will open the Brian Scott era for the Alaska Nanooks volleyball program. Scott comes to Alaska after serving a three-year stint as an assistant coach at NCAA Division I Weber State University. Scott and his assistant, Robert Berrett, who was also an assistant at WSU with Scott, have taken the reigns of a program that went 3-23 last season.
Scouting the Opposition: Minot State
The Beavers of Minot State will be the first team the Nanooks get a crack at this season, as they face off in the second match on Friday at 7:15 p.m. Like Alaska, MSU is under the direction of a first-year head coach, as Ben Kaszeta takes over for a team that finished 11-18 a year ago.
Kaseta inherits a team who lost its top statistical leader in kills, assists and digs, but does return senior Mallory Sall, who is fourth on the school's all-time kills list with 1,085. Last season, Sall ranked second in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference in kills-per-set with 4.06 to earn her All-NSIC second team honors. In fact, her kills-per-set average was the 19th-best total in NCAA Division II last season.
Scouting the Opposition: Saint Joseph's (Ind.)
The Pumas will take on the Nanooks in the first match of Saturday's afternoon session at 11 a.m. Saint Joseph's is led by second-year head coach Brittany Cherwinka and returns 10 players from a team that finished 10-18 last season.
Cherwinka looks for her team to continue developing in her second season, as her squad returns their top two offensive threats from a year ago in sophomore Bridget Krasowski and junior Kate Wagenaar. The duo combined for 496 kills, as Wagenaar collected a team-best 255, while Krasowski posted 241 kills in during her true freshman season. The Pumas' attack will have a lot of familiarity to it, as senior setter Megan Sturm returns after handing out 481 assists last season.
Scouting the Opposition: St. Mary's (Texas)
Rattler's head coach Jennifer Warmack-Chipman will be the most senior coach at this year's Nanook Classic, as the STMU coach is in her sixth year with the program and her 16th as head coach. Warmack-Chipman's group went 11-18 last year, but posted an 8-8 mark in a competitive Heartland Conference.
St. Mary's strength is in the middle, as middle hitters junior Lauren Slaughter and senior Lauren Holman give the Rattlers a more-than-formidable duo at the net. Holman, who ranks fourth in school history in total blocks with 253, played in an injury-shortened 18 matches a year ago, but still led the team in blocks with 69. In her last healthy year in 2013, Holman set the school record for most block solos in a single-season with 71 to earn All-Heartland Conference honors. Slaughter is the team's top returner in kills, with 131, and looks to be the beneficiary of Holman's return.
Familiar Faces
If fans think that 2015 version of the Nanooks look strangely similar to the 2014 squad, they would not be mistaken. Alaska returns all but two letterwinners from a year ago. The Nanooks have the highest number of returning players in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, with 10 players coming back from last season. Alaska also returns every statistical leader from a year ago, including two-time All-GNAC first team selection Sam Harthun, who led the Nanooks in both kills (348) and digs (236).
Record Chasing
Senior outside hitter Sam Harthun enters the 2015 season on a mission to become the most prolific offense player in both Alaska and Great Northwest Athletic Conference history, as she has collected 1,097 kills in her three-year career. The Oregon City, Oregon native is 267 kills away from becoming the school's all-time leader and 365 away from breaking the GNAC record.
I Set Them Up, You Knock Them Down
Senior setter Miranda Grieser returns for her second season with the Nanooks after transferring in from Highline Community College last season. The senior meshed well with her team early in 2014 and earned the starting setter job. In turn, Grieser collected the seventh-most assists in the GNAC with 666. Grieser is poised to have an even bigger year this season with her familiarity with a team that returns four players who collected 128-or-more kills from a year ago.
Defensive Depth
Despite losing the team's starting libero from a year ago, the Nanooks have a heap of depth and experience back on the defensive side of the court. Redshirt senior Samantha Hesterman, redshirt junior Jordan Ferland and junior Meagan Olsen each record double-digit digs at last week's Blue vs. Gold exhibition match and will all see time at libero.
Follow Along
Every match of the Flint Hills Resources Nanook Classic will be available online for free via Stretch Internet. Click the link here to enter the Nanook Portal. Also, @NanooksVB will be living tweeting their matches on Twitter.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks volleyball team, follow @NanooksVB on Twitter or like Alaska Nanooks Volleyball on Facebook.
