FAIRBANKS, Alaska – Despite a double-double from junior setter Rachel Nichols, the Alaska Nanooks volleyball team was defeated by the Western Oregon Wolves 1-3 in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference match at the Alaska Airlines Court on Saturday night. The Wolves beat the Nooks 25-22, 23-25, 12-25 and 22-25 to improve their overall record to 6-9 (3-5 GNAC), while Alaska drops to 2-13 overall (1-7 GNAC).

"I like how we came into tonight and battled the way we did, there are plenty of positives to take away from it," head coach Brian Scott said following Saturday's game. "With the exception of our third set, I thought we did a good job of battling for every point throughout the rest of the game. It's tough to go back-to-back games where we were so close to getting the win but still coming out on the wrong side of the win-loss column. Angela was a huge help coming off the bench to score seven points in the fourth set. But in the long run, we're going to learn from our mistakes tonight and get better from it as the season progresses."

Nichols registers her second career double-double as a Nanook, dishing a game-high 46 assists and recording 10 digs on the night. Nichols last double-double was on Sept. 17 against Saint Martin's, where the Riverton, Utah native posted 54 assists and 11 digs. Redshirt-senior Meagan Olsen also posted double-double digs, totaling 20 on the night.

Redshirt-junior outside hitter Maddie Davis led the Nanooks offense for the third-straight game, recording 12 kills and boasting a hitting percentage of .267. Davis also tallied the most points out of the Nanooks, recording 13.0. Freshman middle blocker Kim Wong registered 10 kills on the night, while freshman Tatum Upchurch and junior Angela Molesworth chipped in nine kills each.

As a team, the Nanooks out-did the Wolves in kills (54-53) and assists (50-51), while also posting 63.0 points, four service aces, 5.0 blocks and 53 digs total. WOU posted a team hitting percentage of .267, while Alaska only compiled a team hitting percentage of .200.

Kills by Davis and Upchurch put the Nooks up by two, before the Wolves tied it up 2-2 in the first set. Alaska went on a four-point run and a three-point run before reaching the 10-point mark to give the Nooks a 10-6 advantage. The first set saw  zero lead changes but three tie scores as back-and-forth played ensued, the Nooks were able to hang on to the lead to take the first set 25-22.

The second set was a battle to see who could make it to the 10-point mark first with both teams exchanging only one point at a time. Ultimately, it took 18 plays for Western Oregon to reach the 10-8 mark and 21 plays to get to the 20-point mark. The longest point streak was a three-point run which both teams recorded at least once in the second set. An attack error by Davis gave the Wolves the second set 23-25.

The third set proved to be an unlucky one for the Nanooks, as it was plagued by attack error after attack error. Western Oregon went up 3-0 over Alaska before the Nooks were able to record a kill from Wong to make it 3-1. A seven-point run by WOU made it 10-1 in a hurry with the Wolves cruising to a 25-12 defeat for the set.

Statistically speaking, the fourth set proved to be Alaska's best, with the team boasting a game-high 16 kills and a team-best .303 hitting percentage. The  fourth set saw 18 tie scores and seven different lead changes, with the Nanooks charging back to try and force a fifth set by tying the set at 21-21. Errors by the Nooks popped up once again, as the Wolves took the fourth and final set 22-25.

The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team hits the road this week, taking on Northwest Nazarene on Thursday, Oct. 13 (5pm AKT), before facing Central Washington on Saturday, Oct. 15 (6pm AKT) in two GNAC games.

For more information on the Alaska Nanooks volleyball team, follow @NanooksVB on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks volleyball team page on Facebook.