BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team suffered a Great Northwest Athletic Conference defeat by the No. 8 team in the country on Thursday night, falling 3-0 to the Western Washington Vikings at the Sam Carver Gymnasium in Bellingham, Washington. Alaska went 19-25, 15-25 and 19-25 against WWU, dropping their overall record to 3-9 and 1-4 in conference play while the Vikings improve to 10-3 overall and remain undefeated in conference play with a 5-0 mark.

"That was a great team we faced tonight," head coach Brian Scott said. "They executed everything almost perfectly. I'm proud of the way we hung in there and battled in the first and third sets. Going forward, we definitely need to manage our emotions through the ups and downs better but I think defensively, we really competed. Our offense needs to be more disciplined and limit the amount of errors we make in our serve receive and hitting."

Alaska was led offensively by sophomore outside hitter Lahra Weber, who posted a game-high 13 kills. Weber also chipped in six digs, three block assists and one assist for a team-best 14.5 points.

Sophomore setter Cate Whiting had arguably the best night on the court for the Nooks, tallying a team-high 27 assists and 12 digs for her third double-double of the season. Whiting also produced the match's best hitting percentage of the evening, collecting six kills and zero errors off of 13 total attempts for a .462 average. Whiting also chipped in three block assists at the net for the Nooks.

Defensively, the only other Alaska player to register double-digit digs was freshman libero Makena Overbey, who tallied 16 to tie for a match-high.

As a team, Alaska posted a hitting percentage of .102 (36 kills, 23 errors and 127 total attempts), 50 digs, 35 assists, 8.0 blocks and two service aces. Alaska's best offensive set came in the third, as the Nooks posted 16 kills and seven errors off of 43 total attempts for a .209 hitting percentage. Additionally, Alaska's best sideout set was the third, where the Nanooks went 14-of-25 for 56 percent.

Three Vikings posted double-digit kills on Thursday night, including Abby Phelps, Michaela Hall and Kayleigh Harper, who tallied 10 kills each. WWU's setter Brette Boesel collected a match-high 38 assists, while libero Aubrey Stephens tied Alaska's Overbey for a game-high 16 digs.

The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team continues conference play on the road this week, as they travel to Burnaby, British Columbia on Saturday, Sept. 22 to take on the Simon Fraser Clan at the West Gymnasium 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.