FAIRBANKS - The Nanooks volleyball team fell to the Simon Fraser Red Leafs on Thursday, Sept. 24 to drop to 10-5, 2-3 GNAC. This was the Nanooks' second-straight loss following their defeat at Central Washington a week ago.
Both the first and second sets were as close as they could be. Unfortunately, SFU walked away with them both. In the first, the Red Leafs took an early lead with a 23-25 set win. They outhit the Nanooks .250 to .195 while tallying one more kill. Alaska opened up with a 7-4 lead on a
Peri Hoshock kill, but the Red Leafs slowly chipped away at the deficit. They eventually took a one-point lead at 11-12 and then extended their lead. The Nanooks returned the run, though. Alaska scored five of six points to regain the lead and hold a 17-15 advantage on back-to-back kills from
Cori Leavitt. Leavitt made it four-straight points with two more kills, making it 19-17 Nanooks, but an SFU run led to them leading by two. Alaska used an attack error from SFU and
Kellan Flynn service ace to tie it at 23-23, but SFU earned the next two points for the win. In the second, the two sides needed extra points. Simon Fraser grabbed the second 24-26 to extend their lead.
Following an early 0-3 deficit, the Nanooks battled back to take the lead at 12-9. Their lead would last until the Red Leafs made it 16-17. The two sides traded leads before the Nanooks had the first look at set point. After taking a 24-23 lead, SFU rattled off three-straight kills to steal the second.
Alaska dominated the third set. They hit .600 with 16 kills to just one error and held SFU to three kills and four errors for a -.040 swing percentage. The Nanooks got on the board with a huge 25-9 set three victory. They opened up with a 4-0 lead. SFU answered back to make it 6-5 but after a four-point run for the Nanooks, they went on an eight-point run to make it 19-7. After Simon Fraser stopped the streak, the Nanooks finished the set winning six of seven with
Peri Hoshock winning the third on an ace. Unfortunately, that was most of the momentum Alaska came up with heading into the fourth. Simon Fraser responded by opening up with a 3-8 lead in the fourth. They quickly extended the deficit to seven, and took the fourth 13-25.
Inside the Numbers
- Cori Leavitt continues her stellar freshman season. She posted 15 kills tonight to lead the Nanooks. She hit .419 and added five digs and three blocks.
- Presley Engelauf joined Leavitt in double-digits, posting 10 kills. She had a team-high five blocks tonight and added one dig.
- Kellan Flynn led the Nanooks with 13 digs. She added four assists and two aces.
- Cynphany Henderson had a double-double for the Nanooks. She finished with 29 assists and 12 digs while adding five kills, three blocks and two aces.
- Peri Hoshock added three blocks and seven kills tonight and Haylee Lyons had nine digs, four kills, two blocks and an assist.
What's Next
The Nanooks welcome the Western Washington Vikings on Saturday, Sept. 26. WWU fell in five sets to Alaska Anchorage tonight in Anchorage.
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