FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team earned their first three-set sweep of the season since Sept. 7 on Saturday night, as the Nooks downed the Western Oregon Wolves 25-18, 25-17 and 25-10 to earn their fourth Great Northwest Athletic Conference victory at the Alaska Airlines Court. Alaska improves to 11-19 overall on the season and 4-14 in conference play, while the Wolves drop to 6-19 overall and 2-16 in GNAC contests.
"The girls came out with purpose tonight and wanted to change the energy on the floor and our bench led the way. They kept the energy up and the atmosphere in good spirits and I really think that helped us out of our funk," head coach
Brian Scott said on Saturday. "In addition to that, we won the serve and serve-receive battle tonight. Our serves were on point, not only in the number of aces we got but they were finding their spots and putting pressure on Western Oregon. Our serve receive was excellent tonight too. We were able to stay in system and it showed with what our middles were able to hit and our sideout percentage was."
As a team, the Nanooks posted 42 kills to the Wolves' 28, while also outdoing their opponent in assists (42-28), digs (38-36), block assists (8-4), solo blocks (3-0) and service aces (8-0). Alaska registered 42 kills and only nine errors off of 95 total attempts for a team hitting percentage of .347. The Nanooks posted posted sideout percentages of 68, 64 and 81 in their first, second and third set, respectively for a game sideout percentage of 70 (33-for-47).
Alaska was led by freshman outside hitter Lahra Weber, who was the only player on the court to register double-digit kills with 10. Weber led all GNAC players on Saturday night with five service aces, while also chipping in five digs, three block assists and one assist.
Senior middle blocker
Riley Podowicz collected nine kills off of 14 total attempts for a game-best hitting percentage of .643. Sophomore middle blocker Kim Wong followed closely behind with eight kills and no errors off of 13 total attempts for a hitting percentage of .615.
Senior outside hitter
Ariana Horner was close to posting another career night for the second-straight match on Saturday, as the Nome, Alaska native tallied four kills, two digs, one assist and one solo block against the Wolves.
"Ari is a high-energy player and someone her teammates can really get behind and support when she's out there," Scott concluded.
The Alaska Nanooks volleyball regular season comes to a close this upcoming week, as they take on the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves on Tuesday, Nov. 14 before hosting the Montana State Billings Yellowjackets on senior night on Saturday, Nov. 18. Tuesday's matchup in Anchorage is scheduled for 7pm AKST while Saturday's conference match is slated for 2pm AKST.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks volleyball team, follow @NanooksVB on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Volleyball team page on Facebook.
