FAIRBANKS - The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team welcomes the Western Oregon Wolves (4-4, 0-0 GNAC) and Saint Martin's Saints (9-0, 0-0 GNAC) to the Alaska Airlines Gymnasium for the first two conference games of the season for the 'Nooks. Alaska currently sits at 10-2, 0-0 GNAC, the best start to a season through 12 games.

Thursday, Sept. 8
Western Oregon at 7:00 p.m. | Live Video | Live Stats | Tickets

Saturday, Sept. 10
Saint Martin's at 2:00 p.m. | Live Video | Live Stats | Tickets

Last Time Out
Alaska is fresh off of their 4-0 weekend at the Denali State Bank Ice Block Classic. In their hosted event, the Nanooks went undefeated, leading to the Classic Championship. They used a 3-1 win over Black Hills State, 3-1 win over Florida Southern and 3-1 win over Arkansas-Fort Smith to head into the final match 3-0. In their fourth match of the weekend, the Nanooks faced the Findlay Oilers. Findlay quickly took a 1-2 set lead but the Nanooks battled back to take the final two sets, winning in five, 3-2, securing the title and moving to 10-2 on the season. 

White Out
Where white to the Thursday, Sept. 8 game against Western Oregon. This game will be presented by SAAC; let's pack the Patty!

Weekend Tailgate
Come down to the Alaska Airlines Gymnasium at the Patty Center to tailgate the Nanooks' 2:00 p.m. game against Saint Martin's! We'll have food, games, giveaways and much more! Tailgate starts at noon, volleyball starts at 2:00! 

Win Streak
The Nanooks are currently in the midst of a seven game win-streak, their first since last season (9/10/21-9/25/21).

AVCA Poll
The Nanooks received 31 votes in the latest AVCA DII Volleyball Poll. This is the most votes received in the Nanooks' volleyball program history. 

Quick Hitters

• The Nanooks find themselves 4-0 on their home court and 6-2 on the road.
• Alaska is all over the GNAC and Division II statistics leaders. As a team, the Nanooks are third in the GNAC in hitting percentage (.240), first in service aces (114 and 2.53/set), fourth in total kills, first in blocks (113 total, 2.51/set) and third in assists (498, 13.11/set).
• Kristina Head currently sits in 10th for hitting percentage with a .316 this season. She also sits in sixth for the GNAC with 1.07/set.
• Rilee White is sixth in kills in the GNAC with 2.84/set. She leads the way with service aces, with 29 total and 0.64/set.
• Ainsley Smith is seventh in assists as she averages 5.51/set.
• In NCAA DII, the Nanooks sit in 18th in aces per set (2.53), 17th in blocks per set (2.51), 2nd in team digs (624).
• They lead the nation in team assists (531), team kills (573), team service aces (114), total attacks (1,491) and total blocks (113).
• In the individual statistics for Division II stats, Rilee White leads the nation in service aces with 29. Karli Nielson is third in the nation with 23. White is ninth in DII in total attacks with 354. 
• Elizabeth Jackson currently sits in the number one spot in the nation in total blocks as the sophomore middle blocker has 52 total blocks. Kristina Head sits in third with 48.
• Jessa Long is fifth in NCAA DII with 182 total digs. White and Nielson also show up in the top-25 with total kills. White sits in seventh with 128 while Nielson is 24th with 114.
• The Nanooks are riding a seven game win-streak against Western Oregon. They are 8-2 in their last 10 matchups against WOU, dating back to 11/19/2015.
• Alaska has won four-straight against Saint Martin's and are 8-2 in the past 10 matchups with the Saints. This is dating back to 10/1/2015.

GNAC Standings

1. Saint Martin's (9-0, 0-0)
2. Alaska Anchorage (10-1, 0-0)
3. Northwest Nazarene (7-1, 0-0)
4. Montana State Billings (6-1, 0-0)
5. Alaska (10-2, 0-0)
6. Central Washington (5-3, 0-0)
7. Western Washington (5-3, 0-0)
8. Western Oregon (4-4, 0-0)
9. Simon Fraser (3-6, 0-0)
10. Seattle Pacific (2-6, 0-0)

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.