Box score, play-by-play
SEATTLE – In a volleyball season already sprinkled with accomplishments, Seattle Pacific's Chris Johnson added one more to the list on Thursday night:
His 100th coaching victory.
Paige Hoffman had a double-double of 11 kills and 12 digs, and Sarah Risser slammed 16 kills, leading the 15th-ranked and undefeated Falcons to a 3-0 sweep of Alaska Anchorage in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference match.
Scores in Brougham Pavilion were 25-23, 25-23, 25-14.
The win for SPU (14-0, 6-0 GNAC) pushed Johnson to the coaching century mark. Now in his sixth year at the helm, he has twice as many victories as defeats (100-50), earning all of those W's with the Falcons.
“It's just a nice milestone, just knowing you've been a significant part of the program,” Johnson said. “It's very special.”
Added senior outside hitter Sarah Risser, whose play through four seasons has factored into a significant number of those victories. “It's nice to be a part of that. It's really because of those who came before us. We just hope we're passing it on down to more people, and he'll get to 200.”
The 100th certainly will go down as one of the harder-earned triumphs on Johnson's list. Alaska Anchorage (8-6, 3-3 GNAC) is the defending conference champion and battled back and forth with Seattle Pacific through the first two games before the Falcons took command in the early stages of Game 3 and kept it the rest of the way.
“We started getting them a little more out of system in the third game, started serving more to a couple other of their people,” Johnson said. “I felt we had them figured out after the first two games. Our girls are starting to learn quickly and make adjustments that they're able to make and go after any weaknesses that they see.”
The sweep was the fifth straight for Seattle Pacific, which winds up a homestand on Saturday afternoon at 2 against Alaska Fairbanks.
Junior outside hitter Hoffman (Encinitas, Calif.) hit at a .391 clip in posting her second double-double of the season and of her career. Risser (Santa Barbara, Calif.) hit .238. Junior libero Anna Herold (Bothell, Wash./Shorecrest HS) had 17 digs, and sophomore setter Shelby Swanson (Kennewick, Wash./Kamiakin HS) set up 38 assists. Sophomore middle blocker Angie Pricco (Brier, Wash./Blanchet HS) had four blocks.
Redshirt freshman middle blocker Nikki Lowell (Claremont, Calif.), coming off a school-record .833 hitting night in Monday's homecourt sweep of Montana State Billings, had another sterling performance, this time at .471 with nine kills and just one error on 17 swings. Already the GNAC's leading hitter coming into Thursday, she raised her season average to .389.
Neither team led by more than three in the first game, and the Falcons finally clinched it on a Pricco kill.
The Seawolves charged ahead in Game 2, with early leads of 7-2 and 9-5. SPU forged the first tie of the game at 9-9, the first of nine straight deadlocks all the way up to 17-17. Anchorage seemed on the verge of gaining a split with a 22-19 lead. But the Falcons ran off five straight points, three of them on kills by Hoffman, to go up 24-22. UAA closed to 24-23, then Hoffman slammed a kill to wrap up the game.
Seattle Pacific effectively took over the third game with an 8-2 run that extended a 6-5 lead to 14-7. The Seawolves never came closer than five after that, as the Falcons hit .481 in that game (15 kills and just two errors on 27 attacks) to finish at .271 for the match.
“That second game, we battled back, and we just out-worked them,” Johnson said. “We stayed aggressive, and we passed extremely well all night. Sarah and Paige played awesome, and Sarah just turned it on in the third game (with seven of her 16 kills and a .600 hitting percentage). Anna Herold and Sarah and Lindsey Wodrich are just passing phenomenally well.”
Alaska Anchorage (8-6, 3-3 GNAC) hit at .229 for the night, the first team this season to finish above .200 against SPU. The Seawolves were led by the 11 kills of Robyn Burton, who hit a high-flying .588.
NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Brougham Pavilion/Seattle, Wash.
(No. 15) Seattle Pacific 3, Alaska Anchorage 0
Game scores – 25-23, 25-23, 25-14
Service aces – SPU: Sarah Risser 2, Paige Hoffman 2. UAA: None.
Kills – SPU: Risser 16, Paige Hoffman 11. UAA: Robyn Burton 11.
Assists – SPU: Shelby Swanson 38. UAA: Siobhan Johansen 24.
Blocks – SPU: Angie Pricco 4, Lindsey Wodrich 3, Nikki Lowell 2. UAA: Marie Borowikow 3.
Digs – SPU: Anna Herold 17, Hoffman 12. UAA: Nikkie Viotto 13, Johansen 11.
Hitting (kills-errors-total attacks) – SPU: Lowell 9-1-17--.471, Hoffman 11-2-23—391, Pricco 4-0-12--.333, Risser 16-6-42--.238, SPU 45-13-118--.271. UAA: Burton 11-1-17--.588, Cortney Lundberg 6-2-12--.333, Jackie Matthisen 8-1-28--.250.
Attendance – 179.
Records – Seattle Pacific 14-0, 6-0 GNAC. Alaska Anchorage 8-6, 3-3 GNAC.
Next match – Alaska Fairbanks at Seattle Pacific, Saturday, Brougham Pavilion, 2 p.m.
