FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team found redemption on Friday night, bouncing back from Thursday's loss to defeat the Saint Martin's University Saints and earn their first Great Northwest Athletic Conference victory of the season at the Alaska Airlines Court. The Nooks went 3-1 against the Saints, going 25-12, 12-25, 25-19 and 25-21 to improve to an 8-5 overall record and 2-2 in conference play, while the Saints drop to 6-6 overall and 1-3 in GNAC contests.

Alaska's eight wins on the season sets a new single-season victory record for third-year head coach Brian Scott and marks the first time since the 2009 season the Nanooks have had eight-or-more wins.

"Like I said last night, the GNAC is a tough conference and it's going to be tough week-in and week-out," Scott said on Saturday. "Saint Martin's is a lot better than they were last year and that was a scrappy team we just faced. It was nice for us to face some adversity on the court tonight. We let the second set get away from us a little bit but we learned from it and we started playing one point at a time after that. The great thing about this team is that it's a very resilient team and we genuinely learn from past experiences. This team works hard to make adjustments and works hard to get better."

As a team, the Nanooks out-did their opponents in almost every major statistical category on Friday night, including kills (54-53), hitting percentage (.310-.269), assists (53-52), service aces (8-4), solo blocks (4-3), block assists (8-2), team blocks (8.0-4.0) and points (70.0-61.0). Alaska's best hitting set came in the first, as the Nooks posted 17 kills and four errors off of 28 total attempts for a hitting percentage of .464. Furthermore, Alaska recorded an 84 percent sideout percentage going 11-of-13.

In the last two sets alone, Alaska only tallied four hitting errors, two in the third and two in the fourth.

"Our serving was on-point tonight and it put some pressure on the serve-receive," Scott continued. "It seemed like balls were either hitting the floor or we caught them chasing after them which allowed us to get in position defensively."

The Nanooks were led by redshirt-senior outside hitter Maddie Davis, who posted a team-high 13 kills, while also chipping in eight digs, one assist, one service ace and one block assist.

Redshirt-freshman Markie Miller was the only other Alaska player to record double-digit kills, as the Brewster, Washington native collected 12 kills. Miller also led the Nanooks in hitting percentage, registering 12 kills from 25 total attacks and only two errors to average .400. Additionally, Miller pitched in three service aces, three digs and one solo block to lead the team with 16.0 points.

Senior setter led Alaska with 25 assists, while freshman Cate Whiting continues her serving hot streak with three service aces and also 23 assists. Sophomore libero Jenna Hickel tied the game-high with SMU's Rebecca Mitchell with 13 digs apiece.

The Alaska Nanooks hit the road next week, taking on GNAC competitors Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene. The Nooks will face CWU on Thursday, Sept. 28 at 6pm AKT before taking on the NNU Crusaders on Saturday, Sept. 30 at Noon AKT.

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