LACEY, Wash. – The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team was on the verge of a comeback on Friday night, only to fall 3-1 to the Saint Martin's University Saints in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference match at the Marcus Pavilion. The Nanooks went 18-25, 25-21, 13-25 and 23-25 against the Saints to drop their second-straight GNAC contest.

Alaska now sits with an overall record of 9-11 and a conference mark of 2-9, while Saint Martin's improves to 8-11 overall and 2-8 in GNAC play.

"Unfortunately, Saint Martin's just wanted it more than we did tonight," head coach Brian Scott said following Friday's game. "The moment SMU walked on the court, they had an agenda and they were here to send a message. They were very much the team that came out to compete tonight and I don't believe we came out and matched their intensity. When we wanted to make some comebacks and we wanted to be disciplined, we did so and I think if we could've finished that fourth set, who knows, it could've been anyone's game."

The Nanooks were led offensively by a trio of outside hitters, as freshman Lahra Weber, redshirt-senior Maddie Davis and sophomore Gabby Lerma each tallied a team-high 10 kills on the night. Davis' 10 kills and four errors off of 24 total attempts to lead all Alaska players with a .250 hitting percentage. Davis also registered eight digs, two service aces and one assist to total a team-high 13.0 points.

Senior setter Rachel Nichols and freshman setter Cate Whiting both posted 20-or-more assists over the Saints, as they tallied 23 and 20, respectively. Nichols, along with Davis and Weber, also registered two service aces on the night and chipped in eight digs.

Defensively, sophomore libero Jenna Hickel led all Nanook players with 15 digs.

As a team, the Nanooks registered 48 kills and 23 errors off of 139 total attacks to combined for a team hitting percentage of .180. Alaska's best offensive set came in the second set, as they recorded a .367 hitting percentage off of 14 kills and three errors from 30 attempts.

"We're heading into tomorrow's game facing a really tough opponent in SPU and we're going to have to regroup and we're going to have to shift out mentality walking into that gym," Scott concluded. "We need to come out and be ready and prepared."

The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team will have a quick turnaround on the road, as they take on the Seattle Pacific Falcons in another GNAC contest tomorrow (Saturday), Oct. 21 at 4pm AKDT in Seattle.

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