THE SCHEDULE:         Thursday, Nov. 4: W. Washington at SPU, 7:00 p.m. 
                                       Brougham Pavilion (2,650)/Seattle, Wash.
                                       Live Webcast       Live stats

                                      Saturday, Nov. 6: Simon Fraser at SPU, 7:00 p.m.
                                      Brougham Pavilion (2,650)/Seattle, Wash.
                                      Live Webcast        Live stats


       Weekly release, with complete stats (PDF)

SEATTLE – No more tune-ups. No more 'taking it one match at a time' until the volleyball rematch between Seattle Pacific and Western Washington.

That rematch is at hand: The Falcons. The Vikings. And the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship at stake.

It's all set for Thursday night at 7 in Brougham Pavilion.

The teams first met on Oct. 9 in Bellingham, and Western Washington ended SPU's season-opening 16-match winning streak with a three-game sweep, 25-22, 25-23, 25-18.

That tightened the GNAC race – and it has been tight ever since. In fact, the Falcons come into Thursday's match finding themselves in second place for the first time all fall, half a match behind the Vikings (Western is 13-1, SPU is 13-2). So the Falcons need the win to pull even with the Vikings in the loss column.

Seattle Pacific also wants to get back on track quickly following last Saturday's four-game setback at Alaska Anchorage.

With all of the intensity surrounding the Western Washington match, the Falcons have other things on their docket this week – notably Saturday's Senior Night contest against Simon Fraser at 7 in Brougham.





TIME TO SAY GOODBYE
It won't be their final match in SPU maroon. But it will be the final one in Brougham Pavilion for seniors Joelle Perez (Vancouver, Wash./Heritage HS) and Sarah Risser (Santa Barbara, Calif.) on Saturday night against Simon Fraser.

Perez, who won the GNAC Freshman of the Year award in 2007, and Risser, a unanimous All-GNAC first-team choice as a junior in 2009, will be honored prior to the match against the Clan.

POSTSEASON PLANS
With their 21-2 record, the Falcons are all but officially assured of a spot in the NCAA West Regional tournament. It will become official on Sunday, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m. PST when the tournament selections are announced.

That means SPU still has plenty for which to play. While Cal State San Bernardino has the inside track to the No. 1 seed in the West, the Falcons remain very much in the chase for No. 2 – and the outcome against Western Washington on Thursday could go a long way toward deciding that seed for whoever wins.

The regional tournament is set for Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Nov. 18, 19 and 20. The eight regional champions will gather in Louisville, Ky., from Dec. 2-4 for the quarterfinals, semifinals and title match.

THREE CAREER NIGHTS IN ONE

Junior outside hitter Paige Hoffman (Encinitas, Calif.) and sophomore middle blocker Angie Pricco (Brier, Wash./Blanchet HS) were at their best in last Thursday's sweep at Alaska Fairbanks.

Hoffman set single-match career highs for hitting percentage at .625 and for service aces with three. Hoffman had 11 kills and just one error on 16 total attacks.

Pricco also had her best-ever night for hitting, finishing at .714 with six kills and only one error on seven swings.

Both players had set their previous best hitting marks when the Falcons swept Fairbanks in Seattle on Oct. 2. On that day, Hoffman hit .500 (11-1-20), and Pricco checked in at .667 (5-1-6).

WILL LOWELL BE A RECORD-SETTING HIT?
Redshirt freshman middle blocker Nikki Lowell is on the verge of setting Seattle Pacific's single-season school record for best hitting percentage. With three regular-season matches left, plus the NCAA tournament, Lowell (Claremont, Calif.) is hitting .387. The all-time school record – set in 1987, just the second year of the Falcon program – is .370 by Gaylene MacDonald.

If Lowell does that, it will be her second school record of the season. Earlier, she set a single-match mark when she hit for .833 accuracy (10 kills, no errors on 12 attacks) on Sept. 27 at home in a sweep of Montana State Billings.

SPEAKING OF THE FALCONS
While losses are never fun, they can be learning experiences. Coach Chris Johnson and his players took their October 9 loss at Western Washington in exactly that way.

'We learned a lot watching film (of that match),” Johnson said. “They didn't come at us the way we thought they would. They set their outside hitters a lot more than they normally do. We're expecting that a bit more this time.”

But ultimately, how well the Falcons do depends mostly on their own performance, both individually and as a team.

“Against Anchorage (last Saturday), we didn't play that poorly as a team. But in both matches (at Western and at Anchorage), we had way too many errors by our outside hitters,” Johnson said. “In our stats against Western, both teams earned the same amount of points (53), but we gave them way too many points (27 on attack and service errors).

“We need to start taking better care of the ball and better responsibility for our own hitting, and hit it in,” Johnson said. “You can't not hit it in and expect to win games.”

SCOUTING THE WESTERN WASHINGTON VIKINGS (Nov. 4)
All-time series: WWU leads, 37-20. Current series streak: WWU won 1.
Last time: Western Washington 3, SPU 0 (25-22, 25-23, 25-18 at Bellingham; Oct. 9, 2010). Western Washington on the Web.
Vikings in a nutshell: Western Washington comes to Seattle on an eight-match winning streak, including seven straight sweeps. In those eight matches, they have hit .300 or better in five of them, including an eye-popping .416 in a three-game rout of Alaska Anchorage on Oct. 21 in Bellingham. Among the three times the Vikings didn't top .300 during their current run was against SPU on Oct. 9, when they hit .231, but limited the Falcons to .155. Western comes in at a conference-leading .248. Leading the way is Emily Jepsen at .315. Jepsen wasn't a big statistical factor in the first match against the Falcons with just eight kills and .211 hitting. But Marlayna Geary and Megan Amundson more than made up for that. Geary had a match-high 14 kills and hit .387; Amundson had 12 kills and hit .294. Jepsen is the GNAC's top server with 35 aces.

SCOUTING THE SIMON FRASER CLAN (Nov. 6)
All-time series: SPU leads, 19-9. Current series streak: SPU won 6.
Last time: SPU 3, Simon Fraser 0 (26-24, 25-13, 25-18 at Burnaby, B.C.; Oct. 7, 2010). Simon Fraser on the Web.
Clan in a nutshell: After an 0-6 start that left it alone in the GNAC cellar, Simon Fraser has gone 4-5 since then and has a chance to climb another spot or two closer to the middle of the conference pack. Setter Jordan Drezet is among the GNAC's assist leaders, ranking fourth at 9.07 per game. Drezet also is one of the best servers with 32 aces, her average of 0.44 per game also ranking fourth. The Falcons had a slow start against the Clan in Burnaby on Oct. 7, finding themselves down 24-21 in the first game before scoring the final five points to win it. SPU then rolled in Games 2 and 3, and by the end of the night had limited Simon Fraser to just .024 hitting.

HOW TO THEY COMPARE?
(With conference ranking)       SPU               WWU             SFU
Hitting percent                            .230 (2)          .248 (1)        .156 (6)
Opponent's hitting percent      .120 (1)          .148 (4)        .241 (10)
Kills per game                             13.84 (1)     13.42 (2)      10.69 (7)
Assists per game                       12.88 (1)     12.60 (2)      10.06 (7)
Aces per game                             1.68 (3)         2.16 (1)        1.49 (4)
Blocks per game                          1.88 (6)         2.05 (2)        1.57(10)
Digs per game                            16.36 (2)       16.13 (3)     11.86 (10)

POLLING PLACE
The Falcons fell five spots to No. 18 in this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association Division II poll, which was released on Monday. SPU received 285 points in the voting. Western Washington climbed two spots to No. 13 with 394 points.

The Falcons and Western Washington swapped places in this week's NCAA West Region poll behind defending regional champ Cal State San Bernardino. The Vikings are now No. 2; SPU is No. 3. Alaska Anchorage has moved up to No. 7.

The three conference champions – GNAC, California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) and Pacific West – automatically qualify for the NCAA West Regionals. The next five highest-ranked teams among the non-champions get the remaining berths. 

MILESTONES IN THE MAKING
--Senior outside hitter Sarah Risser continues to close in on 1,000 career points. She comes into the week with 976.5.
--Sophomore setter Shelby Swanson (Kennewick, Wash./Kamiakin HS) is within range of a 1,000-assist season. With three regular-season matches remaining plus the NCAA tournament, she is at 876. The last Falcon to total 1,000 assists for a season was current senior Joelle Perez, who had 1,118 in 2007.

MILESTONES MADE
--Junior outside hitter Paige Hoffman (Encinitas, Calif.) moved past the career 500-kill mark last week with 11 at Alaska Fairbanks, She now has 514..
--Freshman middle blocker Nikki Lowell has surpassed 200 kills as a Falcons. She enters the week with 216.
--Junior outside hitter Lindsey Wodrich (Richland, Wash./Richland HS) now has played more than 200 games in an SPU uniform, having stepped onto the court for 205.

DOUBLE-DOUBLES AND OTHER DELIGHTFUL DIGITS
--With three double-doubles last Saturday at Alaska Anchorage, the Falcons how have 24 of them in 23 matches this season. Lindsey Wodrich picked up her sixth of the season, Shelby Swanson notched her fifth, and Pagie Hoffman had her third. All are kill-dig double-doubles except for Swanson, whose are assist-dig. Among current SPU players, Sarah Risser has 28 career double-doubles, Wodrich now has 17, Swanson has eight and Hoffman has three.
-- SPU has kept 20 of its 23 opponents below .200 hitting this season. They also have kept nine opponents below .100 hitting.
--The Falcons lead the GNAC in three major statistical categories: opponents' hitting percentage (.120), kills per game (13.84), assists per game (12.88). SPU is No. 2 in hitting percentage (.230) and digs (16.36). In the latter category, Northwest Nazarene has slipped ahead of Seattle Pacific at 16.59 digs per game.
--Individually, Shelby Swanson leads the GNAC in assists at 11.53 per game.
--Junior middle blocker Nikki Lowell retains the GNAC hitting lead at .387. She is five points ahead of Alaska Anchorage's Cortney Lundberg (.382).
--Junior outside hitter Paige Hoffman is No. 6 in hitting at .301.
-- Senior outside hitter Sarah Risser remains No. 2 in kills at 3.88 per game. She is No. 3 in points at 4.41.
--Junior libero Anna Herold (Bothell, Wash./Shorecrest HS) is No. 3 in the GNAC in digs per game at 5.22. Allison Gotz of Western Washington leads at 5.44.
--Lowell and Angie Pricco rank No. 7 and 8, respectively, in blocks per game at 0.93 and 0.90.
-- Lindsey Wodrich is No. 5 in GNAC kills this week at 3.16.

NATIONALLY SPEAKING
--Nikki Lowell made a huge jump in the national hitting statistics this week, moving up 10 spots to No. 13 with her .387 average.
--Shelby Swanson climbed to places to No. 5 in all of NCAA Division II for assister per game at 11.53.
--Sarah Risser is No. 23 in kills per game at 3.88.
--Anna Herold ranks No. 25 in digs per game at 5.22.
--The Falcons climbed a notch to No. 13 for assists at 12.88 per game. And, they moved up two places in kills per game to No. 17 with their 13.84 average.

Click on this link for a look at where Seattle Pacific and GNAC players and teams rank in NCAA Division II statistics.

UP NEXT
Seems as if they were just getting started, but already, the Falcons will wind up the regular season next Saturday, Nov. 13, with a 6 p.m. PST match at Montana State Billings. That will be their only contest of the week, as they have a bye on Thursday, Nov. 11. Then, they will await their destination and first-round opponent in the NCAA West Regional tournament. The postseason field will be announced on Sunday, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m. PST.

AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for a look at results, schedules, stats and notes from the GNAC.


GNAC STANDINGS 
                                                    Conference         Overall
Western Washington                     13-1                 16-2
Seattle Pacific                                  13-2                 21-2
Alaska Anchorage                          10-4                 15-7
Western Oregon                             10-5                 12-8
Central Washington                         8-6                 10-9
Northwest Nazarene                        6-9                   6-15
Alaska Fairbanks                              4-10                6-14
Simon Fraser                                     4-11                4-15
Montana State Billings                     4-11                4-20
Saint Martin's                                     1-14                2-19