HONOLULU, Hi. -  The Nanooks volleyball team fell to the Chaminade Silverswords on opening day at the Hawai'i-Alaska Challenge. Alaska moves to 0-1, 0-0 GNAC on the season while the No. 12-ranked CUH team moves to 2-0, 0-0 PacWest after day one. 

How It Happened
Both sides came out swinging in the opening set with Alaska posting 13 kills to Chaminade's 15. Unfortunately, errors played a difference as Alaska surrendered seven errors to CUH's two (.333%).  Chaminade went on to grab an opening-set win 25-18 to take a 1-0 lead. 

In the second, the Nanook jumped out to an early lead, making it 7-5 on a pair of kills from Elizabeth Jackson and Karli Nielson and two Elena Guc service aces. During set two, Alaska managed to answer each of Chaminade's runs, besting their strong offensive showing with even stronger offense. Alaska's lead grew to 16-10 on a four-point run, ending on another White kill. She'd tally a kill for the next two Alaska points, maintaining their lead at 18-14. Another Guc kill was followed by kills from Kristina Head, Ainsley Smith, Guc, Nielson and White to cultivate a 25-20 set two victory. The Nanooks posted a match-high .452 hit percentage in the second set, ending with 18 kills and four errors. Unfortunately for Alaska, Chaminade's offense powered them to victories in sets three and four as the 'Nooks fell 25-16, 25-15 in the final two sets and falling 3-1 in the opener. 

By the Numbers

• Rilee White led the Nanooks with 13 kills (.355) while Karli Nielson followed with 12 (.242). The two became the first Nanooks duo to post 10+ kills in a regular-season opener since Lahra Weber (14) and Tatum Upchurch (13) did it to open the 2018 season.
• Ainsley Smith picked up 34 of the Nanooks' 39 assists on night one. Alongside her 30+ assist performance, she had 14 digs for a double-double. This was her ninth double-double of her career.
• Kinley Erickson trailed Smith with 10 digs on the night and added four assists. 
• Elena Guc posted five aces, a career-high for a single game. Ainsley Smith added one and Karli Nielson added one. Guc also led the Nanooks in blocks, finishing with four block assists. Kristina Head added two BA, Elizabeth Jackson had two BA and one solo and Josie Jansen added one BA. 
• As a team, the Nanooks hit .195 with 48 total kills and 22 errors. In sets three and four, the Nanooks combined for 17 kills to Chaminade's 29.

What's Next
Alaska is back in action tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 p.m. AKST. They face the Hawaii Hilo Vulcans at McCabe Gymnasium in Honolulu. 

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