BILLINGS, Mont. – The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team earned their first Great Northwest Athletic Conference win on Saturday afternoon, defeating the Montana State Billings Yellowjackets 3-0 at the Alterowitz Gymnasium for their first sweep of the season.

The Nooks went 25-18, 25-22 and 26-24 against the Yellowjackets to improve their overall record to 3-8 and 1-3 in conference contests while MSUB drops to 6-6 overall and 0-4 in GNAC play.

"We pulled out a great win today against very defensive MSUB team," head coach Brian Scott said on Saturday. "We finally put the whole package together. Our defense played very disciplined and offensively, we used a variety of hitters and made scoring much easier on ourselves than in previous matches. I'm very proud of how we responded in the second and third set to some adversity that we faced and we also fought back from behind to seal the victory."

Redshirt-sophomore outside hitter Markie Miller led Alaska's offense on Saturday, tallying a game-high 10 kills. Miller only had two errors off of 18 total attempts for a game-high .444 hitting percentage. The Brewster, Washington native also chipped in six digs, one assist and one block assist for a team-best 10.5 points.

Sophomore setter Cate Whiting helped Alaska's offense with a game-high 33 assists on Saturday, while also tallying six digs and five kills.

Defensively, three Alaska players posted double-digit digs led by freshman libero Makena Overbey, who registered 17 against the Yellowjackets.

Sophomore outside hitter Lahra Weber and redshirt-sophomore hitter Tatum Upchurch also added 12 digs each for the Nooks.

Sophomore middle blocker Emily Moorhead also had herself a day, posting six kills, four block assists, two aces and one assist for 10.0 points.

As a team, Alaska collected 47 kills and 17 errors off of 125 total attempts for a team hitting percentage of .240. Alaska's best offensive set was the first, as the Nooks posted 16 kills and only five errors off of 37 attempts for a set hitting percentage of .297. The Nooks also registered a sideout percentage of 73 in the first set, going 14-for-19.
The Alaska Nanooks continue conference play on the road next week, taking on the Western Washington Vikings on Thursday, Sept. 20 in Bellingham, Washington at 6pm AKT before traveling to Burnaby, British Columbia to face the Simon Fraser Clan on Saturday, Sept. 22 at 1pm AKT.

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