FAIRBANKS, Alaska – Despite going up 2-0 at intermission, the Alaska Nanooks volleyball team fell 3-2 to the #25 Central Washington Wildcats in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference match at the Alaska Airlines Court on Saturday night. The loss drops Alaska's overall record to 10-13 and 3-11 in conference play while the Wildcats improve to 16-6 overall and 11-3 in GNAC matches.

"We're unsatisfied with the way we finished that match," head coach Brian Scott said on Saturday. "We were a very bipolar team tonight and we didn't respond well when they gave us a little push back. Instead, we just backed away instead of pushing through it. If we can learn how to play with a lead and close out a match, we can definitely upset some teams and send a message."

Turning Points

• Set 1: The Nooks went on a five-point run at the 3-4 mark to go up 7-5 on the Wildcats early on. The Nooks ran with the momentum and had a set-best six-point lead over their opponent on six different occasions before closing out the first set 25-17.
• Set 2: The Nooks went on a three-point run before Central Washington could even get on the board in the second set and being the first team to the 10-point mark with a 10-6 lead in the second. Alaska continued their run with one four-point run and two other three-point runs to take a 2-0 lead with a second set score of 25-18.
• Set 3: After tying the set at 4-4, CWU went on a three-point run and never looked back as they continued to respond to Alaska's offensive efforts with their own, eventually closing out the third set with a four-point run to make it a 2-1 match at 16-25.
• Set 4: At the 11-14 mark, the Wildcats capitalized on three back-to-back kills and a bad set by the Nanooks to run with four straight points, eventually taking the fourth set 20-25.
• Set 5: After six tie scores, Central Washington pushed through to go on a five-point run at the 6-6 mark to go up 7-10 over the Nanooks.

Inside the Box Score

• Sophomore middle blocker Kim Wong tied her career-best kills with 15 on the night, tying for a team-high with redshirt-freshman outside hitter Markie Miller
• Wong registered an outstanding hitting percentage of .520 on the night, tallying 15 kills and only two errors off of 25 total attempts
• Senior setter Rachel Nichols collected her ninth double-double of the season, tallying a game-high 51 assists and 18 digs against the Wildcats
• Senior middle blocker Riley Podowicz posted a season-best 14 kills on the night and only four errors off of 35 total attempts to combine for a hitting percentage of .286
• Four Nanooks posted double-digit kills, including freshman outside hitter Lahra Weber (11), Miller (14), Nichols (18) and led by sophomore libero Jenna Hickel(23)
• The Nanooks outdid their opponent at the net, registering a team blocking total of 11.0 to CWU's 8.0
• Wong led the Nanooks' net-presence with two solo blocks and one block assist while Podowicz tallied six block assists for 3.0 points and Weber tallied one solo block and three block assists for 2.5 points.

Next Time Out
The Nanooks hit the road for their last two-game GNAC road trip of the season next week, taking on the Simon Fraser Clan on Thursday, Nov. 2 before facing the Western Washington Vikings on Saturday, Nov. 4. Both matches are scheduled for a 6pm AKT start.

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