FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team saw their losing streak continue, as they fell in three sets to the No. 19th-ranked Western Washington Vikings in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference match on Thursday night at the Alaska Airlines Court. Alaska went 22-25, 22-25 and 18-25 against Western Washington, which drops the Nanooks' overall record to a 2-16 (1-10 GNAC), while the Vikings improve to 13-6 overall (9-2 GNAC).
"It's tough to come out of tonight's game with a loss, but I thought there were good improvements, we're especially happy with how much we've cut down on errors," head coach Brian Scott said following Thursday's game. "With the exception of the third set, we scored more points than them, but we also just had more errors than they did. I thought we had nice hitting percentages tonight, but there's still room to cut down on more errors."
Junior outside hitter Angela Molesworth handily led Alaska's offense with 16 kills, posting a .286 hitting percentage on the night. Molesworth was followed by sophomore outside hitter Amberly Jeane who collected nine kills against the Vikings, tallying hitting percentage of .364. Freshman middle blocker Kim Wong registered four kills for the Nanooks, while fellow-freshman outside hitter Tatum Upchurch boasted the team's best hitting percentage of the night with a .400.
Junior setter Rachel Nichols totaled a team-high 34 assists on the night, marking the Riverton, Utah native's 12th-straight game collecting 20-or-more assists. Nichols also tallied two kills, two service aces and nine digs against the Vikings for 4.0 points. Redshirt-senior libero Meagan Olsen led the Nanooks with 15 digs and also registered two assists.
As a team, Alaska posted 41 kills and 12 errors off of 115 total attacked for a hitting percentage of .252, while the Vikings were .364. Alaska posted 41 assists to Western Washington's 46, while each team collected four service aces.
The first set saw five tie scores, but no lead changes after Western Washington got on the board first with a kill from Arielle Turner. After much back-and-forth play, WWU finally started to extend their lead away from the Nanooks at the 17-13 mark. Two more service aces put the Vikings up 22-16 over Alaska, but the Nooks answered back with a four-point comeback to make it 21-23. The Vikings were able to hang on to capture the first set 25-22.
Western Washington scored the first point in the second set with an attack error from Podowicz, which gave the Vikings the initial lead. The second set saw five tie scores and two different lead changes, when the Nooks took their first lead of the game at the 3-2 mark with a kill from Jeane. At the 16-16 mark, Western Washington found a rhythm and to go on a five-point run to make it 21-16 in a hurry. The Nooks battled back to the 21-22 mark but were unable to hold off the Vikings who took the second set 25-22.
For the first time on Thursday, Alaska was first to score in the third set with a kill from Jeane. The third set saw five tie scores once again and one lead change, which eventually went to the Vikings. At the 7-4 mark, WWU went on a five-point run to make it 9-7 before the Nooks tied it up once again 9-9. The Vikings went on three, three-point runs late in the third set to seal their victory 25-18.
"The team we're trying to become – cutting down on errors, keeping the ball in play, hustling to defensive spots – that's where Western Washington already is. They are a very good team. But we had a lot of moments where we did execute those things, we just need to do it more consistently and I think we will move forward."
The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team returns to the Alaska Airlines Court on Saturday, Oct. 22 for a 1pm AKT GNAC match against the Simon Fraser Clan. There will be a team autograph signing directly after the game in the Patty Center lobby.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks volleyball team, follow @NanooksVB on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Volleyball team page on Facebook.
