FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team opens up their 2020-21 revised spring home schedule this weekend as Northwest Nazarene comes to town. The 'Nooks find themselves 1-2 after a trip to California a week ago, but look to bounce back on their home court.
 

Opponent	Northwest Nazarene
Dates & Times	March 19, 2021 Vs. NNU at 5:00 p.m. AKT   March 20, 2021 Vs. NNU at 11:00 a.m. AKT
Location	Alaska Airlines Court at the Patty Center | Fairbanks, Alaska
Follow Along	Live Stats (TBD) | Live Video
Social Media	Twitter | Facebook

 
Last Time Out
The Alaska Nanooks enter their first home games of the season with a 1-2 record. The 'Nooks are a game under .500 after a road trip to Southern California to face-off with Azusa Pacific, Biola and Concordia-Irvine. In game one, the Nanooks fell to the Cougars of APU, grinding the back-to-back defending PacWest regular-season champion to four sets before falling 1-3. The 'Nooks bounced-back later that same night on Monday, March 8, grabbing their first win of the season against the Eagles, 3-1. Unfortunately, the next day, Tuesday, March 9, the 'Nooks fell 1-3 again, this time to Concordia-Irvine, wrapping-up their California trip.

Newcomers Leave Their Mark
Freshman, Rilee White and transfer-junior, Dani Dodge have impressed through the first week of Nanook volleyball this season. White finds herself tied for first with Lahra Weber in the kills category, collecting 28 through three games. Dodge is the current digs leader on the Alaska squad, picking up 45 through the first three for an average of 15/game.

Break the Streak
The Nanooks look to break the streak of four-straight home losses to the Nighthawks. Alaska has not won at home against NNU since Nov. 5, 2015 when they pulled out a five-set victory. Last year, the 'Nooks won at NNU with a straight-set sweep but fell in five-sets to NNU on Oct. 3, 2019.

Coaches Quotes

Head coach Scott when asked about White's performance in week one of her Nanook career.
Rilee has done a great job. It is really exciting to see her hard work in practices pay off. She is a great team player and fits in well with all of our talented athletes. It helps that our gym is very competitive and Rilee is pushed on a daily basis by upperclassmen as well as her fellow freshman.

When asked about playing in Fairbanks for the first time in nearly 500 days.
We always love playing at home! It will be a little strange this year without fans in the building, but we look forward to playing in a comfortable environment and a little more normalized routine for this week's matches.

When asked about the opening stretch in California.
It was great to play a new opponent last week. Although we would always like more wins, we learned a ton and look forward to making some adjustments on both the defensive and offensive side of the game. We know we can get better with what we learned. Given there is no championships this year, we really want to focus on that idea of learning and growing throughout this season in preparation for fall.

When asked about this weekend's opponent, NNU.
Northwest Nazarene is a great team. As long as I have been here, we have had very competitive matches at the Patty. They are a well-coached group that plays some relentless defense and they have some very good hitters. Our defense will have its hands full this weekend.

Live Stream
All home Nanook volleyball games this season will be live streamed on the official Alaska Nanooks YouTube page. Streams will begin 20 minutes before the scheduled start of the game. Live stats will are TBD.

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