FAIRBANKS, Alaska – For the first time in 14 seasons, the Alaska Nanooks volleyball team posted back-to-back Great Northwest Athletic Conference sweeps at home with a 3-0 victory over Concordia at the Alaska Airlines Court on Saturday afternoon. The Nooks went 25-16, 25-20 and 25-22 over the Cavaliers to move their overall record to 5-10 and 3-5 in conference play, while Concordia drops to 7-8 overall and 4-4 in league play.
After commanding the majority of the lead through sets one and two, Alaska found themselves down 15-18 and then 19-21 in the third set before three kills from the Nooks and an error by Concordia gave Alaska a 23-22 lead. Alaska closed out the set and completed the match 25-22 with back-to-back attack errors from Concordia.
The last time Alaska posted back-to-back conference sweeps at home was the 2004 volleyball season with a victory over Northwest Nazarene on Oct. 15, 2004 and then Seattle on Oct. 16, 2004.
"On the whole, I can't really complain about beating two good GNAC teams who are ahead of us in the standings at home in back-to-back games," head coach
Brian Scott said on Saturday. "I'm really proud of how the girls gritted out a victory, especially when we were behind in that third set. We played tough, came back and got the win."
The match saw five tie scores and four lead changes in the first set, two ties and one lead change in the second set and eight tie scores and three lead changes in the third set. Alaska's best offensive set came in the second, as Alaska registered 16 kills and two errors off of 36 attempts for a team hitting percentage of .389, which was the highest set hitting percentage of both teams throughout the day. The Nanooks also went 38-for-60 for a team sideout percentage of 63.
Alaska was led by sophomore outside hitter
Lahra Weber, who posted a match-high 15 kills. Weber only tallied four errors off of 32 total attempts for a hitting percentage of .344 on the day. The Berlin, Germany native also picked up eight digs, three solo blocks and two aces for a game-high 20.0 points.
Sophomore setter
Cate Whiting led all players in assists on Saturday, totaling 34 throughout the three-set match. Whiting pocked up seven digs and two block assists to help the Nanooks' sweep.
Defensively, freshman libero
Makena Overbey posted 15 digs against the Cavaliers for a team-best.
"We've had some emphasis on blocking this past week and it was really nice to see if pay off today," Scott continued. "Three blocks per set is a huge milestone for us and I'm so happy we achieved that today. We've also been focusing on holding opponents' hitting percentage to a minimum, which we also accomplished today.
The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team hits the road next week, taking on the Seattle Pacific University Falcons in Seattle, Washington on Thursday, Oct. 4 at 6pm AKT before taking on the Saint Martin's Saints in Lacey, Washington on Saturday, Oct. 6 at 2pm AKT.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks volleyball team, follow @NanooksVB on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks Volleyball team page on Facebook.
