SAN FRANCISCO – The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team opened up the Division II West Region Volleyball Showcase with a split on Thursday, sweeping Holy Names University 3-0 before falling 3-1 to Hawaii-Hilo at the Swamp on the San Francisco State University campus.

Alaska now sits at 5-2 overall this season, only one win shy from tying head coach Brian Scott's most winningest season since taking over the program in July of 2015.

Vs. Holy Name University
The Nanooks earned their fourth 3-0 sweep of the season, defeating Holy Names 25-10. 26-24 and 25-17. The three-set match saw 12 tie scores but only two lead changes, as the Nanooks continued to be a dominant force on the serving line.

As a team, Alaska outdid their opponent in service aces (10-2), kills (41-30), assists (40-28), team total blocks (4.0-0.0) and points (55.0-32.0). The Nooks posted 41 kills and 10 errors off of 83 total attacks to combine for a team hitting percentage of .373, while Holy Names registered 30 kills and 19 errors off of 90 total attacks to collect a hitting percentage of .122. Alaska's best hitting set came in the first, as the team went 12-of-16 with only one error to boast a .688 team hitting percentage.

Redshirt-freshman Markie Miller was the only Nanook to register double-digit kills with 11, which also marked the game-high. Miller tallied her 11 kills off of 18 attempts with only two errors, allowing the Brewster, Washington native to total a .500 percent hitting average. Miller also chipped in three digs, one service ace and one block assist to post a game-high 12.5 points.

Senior setter Rachel Nichols led all players with 22 assists on the day, while freshman setter Cate Whiting also chipped in 11 assists herself. Both Nichols and Whiting led all players on the court in service aces, as they each collected three.

Sophomore libero Jenna Hickel collected 17 of Alaska's 37 total digs on the day to boast the game-high for a single player.

Holy Names was led offensively by Summer Williams, who was the only other player on the court to have double-digit kills besides Miller with 10. Holy Names' best hitting set came in the second, as they went 14-of-38 with five errors for a .237 hitting percentage.

"Our servers served really well today, earning 10 aces with three coming from Rachel and three coming from Cate," Scott said about his first match of the day. "It forced the serve receivers to move around and kept them guessing. Markie obviously led us offensively in that first match with her 11 kills. She has the ability to do that with her big, strong arm and teams struggle trying to defend against her as she wails away on the attack."

Vs. Hawaii-Hilo
The Nooks dropped only their second game of the season in Thursday's afternoon match, as the Nooks fell to Hawaii-Hilo 1-3, going 21-25, 12-25, 25-13 and 18-25. The game saw 11 tie scores and four lead changes in the first set alone, before ending on 16 tie scores and only six lead changes throughout the remaining three sets.

Only four players in Thursday's afternoon match collected double-digit kills with two coming from Hawaii-Hilo and two hailing from the Alaska Nanooks. Sophomore Gabby Lerma led all players with 18 kills for a game- and career-high, while redshirt-senior Maddie Davis posted 13 kills of her own. Hawaii-Hilo's Siera Green and Randi Hunter collected 17 and 12, respectively.

Lerma's best game with the Nanooks thus far included a .410 hitting percentage, as the Mission, Texas native went 18-of-39 with only two errors. Lerma also tallied eight digs and one block assist to boast 18.5 points for a team-high.

Davis followed Lerma's lead with 13 kills and four errors off of 31 attempts to post a hitting percentage of .390. Davis also pitched in six digs, four service aces and one assist to tally 17.0 points for the Nanooks.

"Gabby stood out tremendously in the second match today, she played great. She mixed up shots, throwing some deep, shallow, off the block, she had a lot of freedom and capitalized on it," Scott continued. "Maddie was the reason we dominated the third set. She set the tone with three of our four aces and she also mixed up her shots, keeping the defense completely on their toes."

Nichols was one of two players on the day to tally a double-double, as the Riverton, Utah native collected 34 assists and 19 digs for her first double-double of the season. Freshman outside hitter Lahra Weber and Hickel were the only other Nooks to register double-digit digs, as they recorded 13 and 10, respectively.

As a team, Alaska went 51-of-142 with 19 errors to combine for a team hitting percentage of .225. Alaska's best hitting set was the third, where the Nooks had 16 kills and only five errors off of 30 attempts for a .367 hitting percentage. Alaska outdid their opponent in kills (51-50), assist (49-44) and digs (67-62).

The game-changer proved to be blocking and service receive, as Hawaii-Hilo posted a total team block of 9.0 to Alaska's 2.0 and tallied seven service aces to the Nooks' five.

"Our only concern going into tomorrow is for us to have better service receiving," Scott said. "Offensively, we're hard to stop when we pass the ball well but that begins with a good receive. If we can improve upon that tomorrow, we'll be fine."

The Alaska Nanooks continue their participating in the D2 West Region Volleyball Showcase tomorrow, as the Nooks will take on the Academy of Art at 10:15am AKT.

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