FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team fell in a two and a half hour matchup with the Simon Fraser Clan, dropping their record to 9-9, 6-4 GNAC. This was the third loss in a row for the Nanooks, dropping them to fifth place in the GNAC standings.
The Nanooks came into the Oct. 19 game looking to snap their two-game losing streak. Unfortunately, that streak became three, following a tough matchup with Canada's lone-NCAA team. Alaska grabbed an early lead, claiming the first set in commanding fashion, 25-17. The attack-game was on point for the 'Nooks who tallied 14 first set kills with a team hit percentage of .211 compared to the Clan's 10 kills and .045 percentage. Four kills by
Markie Miller led the way for Alaska in the first set.
Set two, the Clan jumped out to an early 2-6 lead before the 'Nooks made a push to take an 11-10 lead on an
Emily Moorhead. Despite the quick lead, the Clan had the answers. SFU took the lead back and kept it for the long-run, taking set two 21-25. The third set went the same way for the 'Nooks. The Clan grabbed an early lead, and despite their best effort, the 'Nooks comeback attempts fell just short as Simon Fraser grabbed the third-set, 21-25.
Alaska turned it around in set-four. After Simon Fraser took an early lead, the Nanooks grabbed three straight points from
Kim Wong and
Lahra Weber kills, giving them the much-needed momentum shift. That lead eventually grew to 21-17 and then a 25-21 fourth set victory, pushing the match to a fifth set, the Nanooks sixth five-set match of the season.
Despite the hard-fought loss, head coach
Brian Scott had these things to say about his team and the way they played, "Win or lose, I don't know if you can feel too horrible about it because we just played hard, we played great. I thought we played very well tonight. We worked hard this week, trying to eliminate large swings and things like that … I thought we did a great job managing our emotions to take away things like that … for us to come up with 51 kills tonight and dig just as much as they did, that's pretty stellar on our part."
The fifth set held the most trouble for the Nanooks. Timely errors played the biggest role in the final set, with six total errors and five coming from the service line. Alaska got some returned help from the Clan's seven total errors. Through this, the game was pushed to extra points when a kill and Alaska attack error gave the Clan the win.
Weber and Miller led the offense for the 'Nooks, combining for 25 kills, while
Cate Whiting assisted on 45 balls and added 22 digs, a game-high.
Makena Overbey had herself a solid defensive outing with 16 digs, the second highest for the Nanooks.
The Nanooks will take the weekend to prepare for their Oct. 22 matchup with their in-state rival, Alaska Anchorage. Anchorage is coming off of their upset-victory over the #2 team in the nation, Western Washington on Oct. 19.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks volleyball team, follow @NanooksVB on Twitter, or like the Alaska Nanooks Volleyball team page on Facebook.
