FAIRBANKS - Both offenses came to play on Thursday, Nov. 2, but it was Saint Martin's pulling away with the win in the end. The Saints grabbed a 3-0 win over the Nanooks with 25-20, 25-23 and 25-17 set wins. 

In the first set, the Nanooks posted a strong .265 hit percentage. Unfortunately Saint Martin's came out hot as well, swinging .324 and committing two less errors than Alaska. The Saints capitalized on the fewer mistakes to grab the 1-0 set lead. In the second, the Nanooks outhit the Saints .378 to .353 and posted 16 kills and two errors but had four service errors to the Saints' two. The Saints grabbed a small two-point win in the second to take a 2-0 lead. Ella Bines led the way with four kills in the second, upping her match total to eight. In the third set SMU finished off the sweep 25-17.

They used another strong hitting performance to grab the sweep over Alaska. The offense for the Nanooks cooled down, as they posted only 12 kills and a .147 hit percentage with seven errors. Alaska had an early set-three lead but an SMU run made it 10-8 Saints before they blew the set open by extending their lead to 17-10. They'd go on to grab the win and the sweep. 

Ella Bines finished with a team-high nine kills while Kristina Head and Karli Nielson followed with eight each. Nielson led the 'Nooks with a dozen digs. Head hit .667 on the night and added three blocks and digs and two assists. Cynphany Henderson and Ainsley Smith shared the distribution and both ended with 17 assists. 

The Nanooks return to action one more time at home on Saturday, Nov. 4 when they host the Western Oregon Wolves at 2:00 p.m.

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