FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team swept the Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks on Saturday, Mar. 20, sweeping NNU 3-0 to take the weekend series-sweep. This pushes the 'Nooks to a 3-2 record in their 2020-21 revised spring schedule.
In an evenly played match, the Nanooks and Nighthawks pushed past the 25-point marker in the first two sets. Alaska managed to grab both wins by the scores of 26-24 and 29-27. After the long first two sets, the 'Nooks were able to pull away from NNU and pick up a 25-20 win in the third and final set, giving them the sweep of the Nighthawks.
In set one, the 'Nooks pulled out an exciting win behind five kills by freshman
Karli Nielson. Alongside the freshman,
AveRee Reynolds and
Emily Moorhead added three kills apiece, giving
Cate Whiting and
Taylor Overn eight and six assists each, respectively. In the middle of set one, the Nanooks hopped out to a 17-12 lead before the Nighthawks, behind Mattisyn Cope and Brooke Foster, roared back to take a 20-23 lead in the blink of an eye. Despite the pushback,
Brian Scott and Nielson willed their team to the finish line. Nielson connected on four of the final five Nanook points, including the final three kills, to steal back the set-victory, 26-24.
Set number two saw a lot of the same action as set one, as the 'Nooks pushed out to another early lead, this time an eight-point lead at 14-6. Behind eight point-winning serves by
Cate Whiting, the 'Nooks felt comfortable before a service-error pushed the momentum to the NNU side. The Nighthawks chipped away at the early lead, eventually taking back the lead at the 22-23 mark. After knotting things up at 25-25,
Lahra Weber subbed back in and found her rhythm. After tying it at 27-27 with a kill, Weber, once again, connected, this time for the set-winner from
Marine Angely. The 'Nooks picked up the second set win with a score of 29-27.
Weber and
Rilee White led the way in the final set, collecting five and four kills. Despite the early starts in the previous two sets, the Nighthawks kicked-off the third with their own early run. Cope put NNU up 5-8 but another Nielson kill, followed by a White service ace, led to the Nanooks running away one last time. After some back-and-forth action, the 'Nooks strung together a run of five to one to finish NNU off.
Cate Whiting picked up two kills in the final five points, and the 'Nooks benefited from some Northwest Nazarene unforced errors. The third set score was 25-20.
The Nanooks were led by Weber and White who both tallied nine kills. Weber boasted a .421 hit percentage, second to
Miya Ohms' game-high of .429. Moorhead ended the game with seven kills, as did Nielson.
Cate Whiting, once again, led the way in assists, adding 22. Overn had herself a nice morning in the distribution department, adding 17 assists. Dodge had herself another solid day on the defensive side of the ball, adding 23 digs to her season-totals. Weber was the only other 'Nook in double-digits with 12 digs.
The Nanooks are off to Alaska Anchorage this upcoming weekend on Friday, Mar. 26 and Saturday, Mar. 27 to face-off with their in-state rivals.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks volleyball team, follow @NanooksVB on Twitter, or like the Alaska Nanooks Volleyball team page on Facebook.
