LAIE, Hawaii – Despite a 14-kill effort from sophomore outside hitter Amberly Jeane, it wasn't enough for the Alaska Nanooks volleyball team, who fell in three sets to Hawaii Pacific University at the Cannon Events Center in Laie on Friday night. On their second game of the day, the Nanooks dropped the first two sets 14-25 and 21-25, before taking the third set 25-20, but ultimately falling in the fourth, 27-25. The Nooks move to a 1-1 overall record, while HPU improves to 1-2.
"Tonight, we just took too long to get into a good rhythm," head coach Brian Scott said after Friday night's game. "We didn't get our passing down or our middles involved right away, like we wanted to. Even though we out-blocked them, we didn't get as many digs as we'd hoped for. I'm happy with how we came back in the third and fourth set, but at that point, it was too late to get the ball rolling."
Following Jeane's breakout performance, junior outside hitter Angela Molesworth chipped in 11 kills, with freshman middle blocker Kim Wong contributing eight of Alaska's 48 kills total on the night. Junior setter Rachel Nichols posted a game-high 39 assists, while redshirt-senior libero Meagan Olsen totaled 13 digs.
HPU hit the ground running in the first set, leading the Nanooks 10-5 early on. The Sharks went on a four-point run, followed by a three-point run to make it 15-8 quickly. The Nooks were trying to get their offense going but unfortunately came up with eight attack errors on 34 attempts. The trio of Jeane, Molesworth and Wong led the Nooks with two kills each.
"Those three performed well in both of our games today," Scott said of Molesworth, Wong and Jeane. "We had a little hiccup in the first two sets when we weren't able to get any balls to Kim or Riley (Podowicz) but into the third, Amberly was back on and she never looked back."
The second set proved to be troublesome for both teams, as the Nanooks posted seven attack errors to the Sharks' four. Hawaii Pacific picked up the pace by going on a five-point run to make it 8-15 halfway through the set, but back-to-back kills by freshman Tatum Upchurch, Jeane and Wong closed to gap to make it 13-16. Despite Jeane's five kill performance in the second set, the Nooks fell 25-21.
Alaska posted their best set of the night, collecting a team attack percentage of .387 in the third. Nichols led with a set-high 11 assists, to Alaska's 15 kills. Molesworth led the Nooks with five kills, while junior Riley Podowicz chipped in four of her own. Despite posting four servicing aces, Alaska came away with the set 25-20.
"Rachel does such a great job distributing the ball. The best skill she has is her ability to get the ball to our middle players and reading the blocker coverage and working around it. That combination of skill and identification has been her key to success," Scott said of his setter.
The fourth set proved to be the most difficult for the Nanooks, who were down early 0-3. Alaska fought back to tie it 4-4, before tying it again 5-5 thanks to redshirt junior Maddie Davis' kill. Alaska took the lead for the first time in the fourth set by going on a four-point run to make it 15-10 Nanooks. The Nooks held the lead until the 25-24 mark on the set. An attack error from the Nanooks caused the Sharks to tie it up and a service error on Alaska's part gave them the lead 26-25. Alaska was called for a ball-handling error to give the Sharks the win, 27-25.
"Going into tomorrow, we need to remember how we came out this afternoon and how we finished the game tonight. If we can keep distributing the ball all over the court and cut down on service errors, I think we will be in good shape," Brian concluded.
The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team takes on the Chaminade Silverswords Saturday, Sept. 3 at 9pm AKT to conclude their three-match trip to Hawaii. For more information on the Alaska Nanooks volleyball team, follow @NanooksVB on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Volleyball team page on Facebook.
