FAIRBANKS - The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team defeated the Seattle Pacific Falcons on Saturday, Oct. 15. It took five sets, but in the end, the Nanooks pulled away with the win after taking the opening two sets and dropping sets three and four. With the win, the Nanooks move to 15-8, 5-6 GNAC and drop the Falcons to 8-11, 6-5 GNAC.

The Nanooks opened the afternoon with two set wins. In set one, they outhit the Falcons .175 to .108 and tallied two more kills. Those killed proved to be the difference in a 25-23 set win. In set two, the Nanooks pulled away again, taking it 25-22 behind 15 kills. SPU took the third and fourth sets 25-19. They swung .250 in the third and beat the 'Nooks in the fourth as Alaska hit only .024 while SPU hit .100. In the fifth, the Nanooks tallied nine kills and posted a .467 hit percentage to run away with a 15-8 win.

The first set started with SPU jumping out to a 7-1 lead. Soon, the lead grew to nine at 15-6, but one small run was all Alaska needed to crawl back into the set. They used three-straight points to make it 15-9 behind an attack error and kills by Ella Bines and Johnasia Michelle Carr. SPU snapped the run but it picked back up as Alaska tallied four more points, pulling the deficit to 16-13. The Falcons were the first to 20 after a Karli Nielson error, taking a four-point lead. The 'Nooks pushed back and eventually tied it at 23-23, capitalizing on another Falcon error. They then stole the set away from SPU on another White kill and attack error, winning the opener 25-23. Set two saw a similar start as SPU jumped ahead 5-2. The 'Nooks battled back to take a 6-5 lead on four-straight points, led by two kills from Nielson. The two sides traded leads. After the Falcons tied it again at 11-11, they rolled ahead by a couple, making it 13-11. The 'Nooks responded right back with three-straight and SPU returned the favor with three of their own. 

Seattle Pacific, once again, was the first to 20, taking a 20-19 lead on a Bines attack error. She rebounded, getting the next kill to tie the game and Kristina Head manned the net for a solo block on the next point, making it 21-20 Nanooks. Between SPU points, Alaska tallied two more points, eventually winning the second 25-22 on a Rilee White service ace. 

The third and fourth sets went to SPU. In the third, they quickly ran out to a 9-3 lead. Alaska managed to pull within two at the 13-11 mark behind Ainsley Smith's serving. Elena Guc and White tallied a kill, Elizabeth Jackson added a block, and Smith posted an ace. After SPU broke the run, the Nanooks battled back and tied it at 15-15 behind a Jackson kill and blocks from Guc and Head. SPU ran away after that. The 'Nooks stuck within two to the 21-19 point but the Falcons ended on a 4-0 run to win it 25-19. In the fourth, the Nanooks posted an early start. They made it 5-1 on an SPU error but the Falcons fought back to take the lead at 7-6. A 4-0 run by Alaska made it 11-8 and they eventually stretched it to 14-10. A six-point string for SPU gave the Falcons the lead back. They quickly turned a 15-11 deficit into a 17-15 lead. Alaska tied it at 18-18 but the Falcons scored seven of the final eight points, winning the fourth 25-19.

Alaska opened the fifth in the perfect way possible. Behind six SPU errors, one block and three kills, the Nanooks found themselves up 9-1. Seattle Pacific battled back to pull within five at 10-5, but the Nanooks had too much momentum moving forward. Karli Nielson made it 11-5 with her final kill of the game before Guc, Jackson and White put the set and game away with kills. Rilee White finished Seattle Pacific off with a kill to win it 15-8. 

The Nanooks ended the day with four players with 10+ kills. Nielson led the way with 15 and a .233 hit percentage. She added one block and five digs. Ella Bines added 13 kills, three blocks and one block. White ended with a dozen kills, five aces, 10 digs and two blocks. Guc finished with 11 kills and a .292 hit percentage with three digs and two blocks. Ainsley Smith and Taylor Overn continued their shared distribution; Smith ended with 27 assists while Overn added 25 of her own. Jessa Long finished with a game-high 26 digs.

Volleyball takes to the road for matchups with Western Washington and Simon Fraser next week and weekend.

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