VIRGINIA BEACH, Vir. – On Sunday, the Alaska Nanooks volleyball team split in the final day of the Viking Virginia Beach Invitational at the Tidewater Volleyball Arena, posting a 3-0 victory over Converse College for their third sweep of the season before falling 0-3 to Slippery Rock University for their first loss of the season.

The Nanooks improve to 4-1 overall on the season, surpassing their win mark from the 2016 campaign.

Versus Converse
Alaska swept Converse 25-15, 25-21 and 25-17 for their third sweep of the season, following their games against Elizabeth City State (Sept. 1) and Mount Olive (Sept. 2).

"It was nice to have another solid offensive performance in our first match of the day where we had both setters distributing the ball extremely well," head coach Brian Scott said on Sunday. "All of our hitters were able to get really good swings off of our setters. Markie had a double-digit kill performance which is great to see and Riley had really great hitting efficiency with four kills off of five attempts."

As a team, Alaska outdid their opponent in kills (45-24), hitting percentage (.262-.021), assists (42-22), digs (42-29) and points (56.0-33.0). The Nanooks' best offensive set came in the third when Alaska boasted a .297 hitting percentage, capitalizing on 18 of 37 attempts. Alaska registered an 80 percent side-out rating in the first set, going 12-of-15.

Redshirt-freshman outside hitter Markie Miller led the Nanooks offensively, registering 12 kills for a game-high. Miller boasted a hitting percentage of .273 while also chipping in one service ace and three digs for a game-high 13.0 points.

Freshman setter Cate Whiting tallied a game-high 21 assists against the Vikings, while senior setter Rachel Nichols pitched in 14 assists. Whiting also led all players with three service aces throughout the three-set match.

Sophomore libero Jenna Hickel collected a game- and career-high 18 digs, while sophomore outside hitter Gabby Lerma was the only other Nanook to total double-digit digs with 10 herself.

Versus Slippery Rock
In Alaska's tightest game thus far, the Nooks fell to Slippery Rock 22-25, 21-25 and 26-24 to drop their first contest of the 2017 season. In a game that saw 16 ties and three lead changes, blocking proved to be the difference-maker, as SRU posted 10.0 team blocks to Alaska's 3.0. The Nooks only posted one solo block and four block assists, while SRU dominated the net with three solo blocks and 14 block assists.

"We faced a really veteran squad against Slippery Rock. They were a solid, tough, defensive team," Scott concluded. "In three sets, they posted 10 blocks and 74 digs. On our end, we almost matched them in digs but we had a tough time putting the ball away. Slippery Rock was our toughest challenge yet and I thought we responded pretty well for the most part. We didn't fold or collapse, we kept pushing. We had some small little breaks and gaps in play from time to time and they eventually caught up to us."

The Nanooks outdid SRU in almost every statistical category, including kills (38-37), total attacks (156-150), assists (35-32) and hitting percentage (.103-.100), while SRU held the edge over Alaska in service aces (3-4), digs (73-74) and points (44.0-51.0).

Redshirt-senior outside hitter Maddie Davis led the Nanooks offensively, posting a team-high seven kills and a hitting percentage of .263. Freshman Lahra Weber, sophomore Kim Wong, Podowicz and Lerma chipped in six kills each.

Nichols and Whiting were both vital in ball distribution on Sunday, as they tallied 15 and 14 assists, respectively. Hickel had one of her best defensive days in her career, tallying a game- and career-high 33 digs, while Weber totaled 10.

The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team continues their 10-day road trip this week, as the team travels to San Francisco to take part in the Division II West Region Volleyball Showcase hosted by the Academy of Art. Alaska will face another double-header on Thursday, Sept. 7, as they take on Holy Names University (8:30am AKT) and the University of Hawaii at Hilo (4:00pm AKT).

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