FAIRBANKS - The Nanooks volleyball team split their final day of the Denali State Bank Ice Block Classic to end the Classic 2-2 and take the runner-up spot as Lander claimed the title of the 2023 Classic. 

The Nanooks fell to Lander in game one before beating West Region opponent, Stanislaus State.

Game One
Alaska held Lander to fewer kills, fewer aces, fewer assists, a lower hit percentage and the same amount of errors. However, the Nanooks fell in four sets. The first was close; Lander took it 25-22. Kristina Head and Karli Nielson ignited the Alaska offense with three and four kills, respectively. However, a late set 4-0 run turned a Lander 22-21 deficit into an Alaska defeat, 25-22, making it 1-0 Lander. In the second, the Bearcats jumped out to a 6-1 lead before Josie Jansen tallied a kill to stop the bleeding. The sides traded points before Lander extended its lead to 10-4. 

The 'Nooks made a run, pulling within two at 10-8, but Lander answered back with three of the next four to make it 13-9. Another push from the Nanooks made it 13-12 Lander, instigated by kills from Rilee White and Elena Guc. The two traded scores until an attack error tied the set for the Nanooks. Lander would immediately take its lead back off of a kill. However, Alaska would not quit responding with four straight, including two White kills to give Alaska a 21-18 lead. The Bearcats would not be held back, scoring three straight to tie the set at 21. A Lander attack error momentarily gave Alaska a lead, 22-21. Either side would trade the next four points, scoring two each, Guc and Lily Stewart netted the kills for the 'Nooks, keeping the lead at one, 24-23. Two straight from Lander put the Nanooks at the precipice of defeat, 25-24. However, Guc would once again respond, tying the set at 25. However, two straight from the Bearcats would end the set in a Lander win, 27-25. 

In the third, the Nanooks pushed ahead to an early 7-3 lead behind aces from Cynphany Henderson and Rilee White. Alaska would push its lead further behind kills from Head and Guc and an ace from Grace Steurer, 10-4. Lander momentarily stopped the bleeding with a score, Alaska would not let its foot off the gas, scoring three-straight behind kills from Nielson and Stewart, and an ace from Ainsley Smith, 13-5. The Bearcats would once again stop the run with a score before Alaska responded with yet another 3–0 run, extending the lead to 10, 16-6. Stewart and Nielson were the catalysts of the run, as Nielson added an ace and an assist to Stewart for one of her two kills during the run. Lander briefly ended the run, going on a short 2-0 run of its own. Alaska would answer yet again, this time with a 4-0 run behind a White kill and a Head ace, 20-8. The two would trade points before Lander went on a late run, cutting the Alaska lead to nine, 22-13. Again, the two sides would trade scores before seeing the Bearcats cut the lead again on a 3-0 run, 24-17. However, the lead was too much to come back from for Lander, as a Stewart kill gave Alaska the set, 25-17. 

The two sides traded scores early in the fourth set before Lander went on a small run for an early 9-6 lead. Alaska would cut the lead to just two, 11-9 before the Bearcats responded with a 3-0 run for a 14-9 lead. The Lander lead stalled at five until the 18-13 mark, as Alaska would go on a 5-0 run to tie the set at 18, White led the run with two kills. The tie would be short-lived as Lander rattled off four straight of its own, pushing the lead to 22-18. A Lander service error briefly stopped the run before Lander scored three of the last four for a 25-20 set win. 

Guc, Stewart, Nielson and White each netted 10 or more kills with 12, 11, 10 and 10, respectively. Smith led the distribution tonight with 18 assists. Henderson added 17 and Steurer added nine. Stuerer finished with 20 digs. 

Game Two
Game two was the Lily Stewart story. 

Stewart had herself a monster night to lead the Nanooks to a 3-1 victory over the Stanislaus State Warriors on Saturday, Sept. 9 and helped the 'Nooks claim the runner-up trophy in the 2023 Denali State Bank Ice Block Classic. 

Alaska came out firing in the first, taking the opening set 25-16 behind 14 kills and only three errors while CSUS tallied 10 kills and surrendered seven errors. In the second, the Nanooks posted near-identical numbers, however, Stanislaus put away 20 kills and only four errors to snag the second-set win 25-22, evening up the sets at 1-1. The 'Nooks would go on to take sets three and four 25-20 and 25-18 behind two huge offensive sets that saw 14 and 16 kills and a .484 hit percentage in the fourth. 

In the opening set, Alaska ran out to an early 3-0 lead before Stanislaus matched that with a run to make it 5-5 after the opening 10 points. The 'Nooks found another burst, pushing across four-straight to make it 9-5 on kills from Elena Guc and Karli Nielson. The two sides traded runs and the Nanooks saw their lead extend to 14-9 behind two kills each from Lily Stewart and Nielson. After Stanislaus pulled within two, Alaska grabbed six, growing their lead to 21-13 before taking the opening set on a Guc kill, 25-16. In the second, the Warriors jumped out to a quick 9-5 lead. They'd maintain the lead throughout much of the second; seeing a seven-point lead at 18-11. After making it 20-14, the Nanooks stormed back to make it 20-19 on five-straight points. Back-to-back kills from Stan State would push the 'Nooks deficit to three and despite late kills from Kristina Head and Guc, the Nanooks fell in set two, 25-22.

In the final two sets, Lily Stewart came to play, posting 12 kills, including three in the third and nine in the fourth to push the 'Nooks into the win column. The third set started back-and-forth. Stewart started the set off with a pair of kills, making it 2-1 'Nooks. After a 10-10 tie, the Nanooks picked up three points to make it 13-10 and eventually push their lead to 17-12 on back-to-back Kristina Head kills. Their lead would grow to seven on an attack error by Stanislaus and Lily Stewart would get another kill to make it 24-20 before Karli Nielson served up an ace to win the set 25-20. The final set was all Stewart. The graduate-transfer opened up with back-to-back kills to get the Nanooks on the board. She'd get another one to make it 4-3. After the Nanooks fell behind, Stewart went on a run, pulling the 'Nooks within one before giving them the lead on a kill at the 12-11 mark. Three attack errors on the Warriors made it 15-11 Nanooks before Guc and Nielson made it 20-14. 

Stanislaus made one final push, pulling within four at 20-16, but the Nanooks closed it out with kills from Nielson and Stewart. Alaska pulled out the 25-18 set win and pulled a 3-1 win to move to 4-8, 0-1 GNAC on the season. Stewart ended the night with a historic 20-kill, .625 hit percentage night. She added three block assists and one dig. Grace Steurer tallied a team-high 23 digs while adding five assists. Nielson ended the night with a double-double, posting 11 kills and 14 digs while adding three block assists and three aces. The Nanooks return to action next weekend as they travel to the Shaw University Tournament.

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