THE SCHEDULE             Thursday, Sept. 30: Alaska Anchorage at SPU, 7 p.m. 
                                          Brougham Pavilion (2,650)/Seattle, Wash. 
                                          Live Webcast and live stats links on this link

                                          Saturday, Oct. 2: Alaska Fairbanks at SPU, 2 p.m. 
                                          Brougham Pavilion (2,650)/Seattle, Wash. 
                                          Live Webcast and live stats links on this link


       Weekly release, with complete stats (PDF)

SEATTLE – For the past week, the Seattle Pacific Falcons have had things mostly their way on the volleyball court: three more sweeps of Great Northwest Athletic Conference opponents.

Now come a pair of their toughest tests in conference competition.

The 15th-ranked and undefeated Falcons will play host to defending GNAC champion Alaska Anchorage on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Brougham Pavilion. Then on Saturday, Alaska Fairbanks – which already has a four-game victory against the in-state rival Seawolves earlier this season – come calling for a 2 p.m. match. That will wind up a friendly portion of the schedule that has seen SPU play five of its first seven conference matches at home after starting the season with nine straight on the road.




Seattle Pacific came through a busy stretch with three victories in five days, starting last Thursday at Western Oregon, continuing on Saturday at home against Saint Martin's, and winding up on Monday at home against Montana State Billings.

The Falcons head into their two Alaska matches alone atop the GNAC standings at 5-0, half a game ahead of Western Washington (5-1), which dropped a tight four-gamer at Anchorage last Thursday.

After this week, the Falcons hit the road for their next three, with two of those next week: at Simon Fraser on Thursday in their first match against the GNAC newcomer, and a showdown in Bellingham against Western Washington on Saturday, Oct. 9.

ONE CENTURY MARK DOWN, ONE TO GO
When the Falcons polished off a three-game sweep of Western Oregon in Monmouth last Thursday, it was their 100th GNAC victory since the conference formed in time for the 2001-02 school year. With the subsequent wins against Saint Martin's and Montana State Billings, Seattle Pacific is now 102-59 all-time in the conference, and is the third school (joining Western Washington and Central Washington) to win 100 or more GNAC matches.

Heading into Thursday's Anchorage match, Falcons head coach Chris Johnson is sitting at 99 career victories – all of them during his five-plus years on the SPU bench. He brings a 99-50 overall record into the contest against the Seawolves. 


FOR THE RECORD, FRESHMAN SETS ONE
Nikki Lowell needed just half of her first season in a Seattle Pacific uniform to get into the school record book. Lowell (Claremont, Calif.), a redshirt freshman middle blocker, hit at an .833 clip in Monday's three-game sweep of Montana State Billings to shatter the single-match record. The old mark was .750 set by Robin De Jong on Nov. 6, 2008 in a match at Saint Martin's. Lowell set the new record with 10 kills and no errors on 12 total attacks.

“I just come out and try to do the best job that I can do,” Lowell said. “I would love to get a double-double (for kills and blocks), but it's kind of hard to do that in just three games.”

Added coach Chris Johnson, “That' just an amazing performance by any standards. That is not an easy thing to do.”

SPEAKING OF THE FALCONS
While Seattle Pacific certainly has been flying high so far this season, coach Chris Johnson has been pleased with the way his players have been keeping their feet firmly grounded.

“We've had some good talks lately about where the team's mindset is as a whole. And it's in a good place,” Johnson said. “They're really understanding the importance of every mach and every game in that match, and every point in that game, and every contact in that point. They're coming out every single time in matches and in practice and doing their best on every single touch.”

As would be expected, the Falcons are every opponent's favorite target.

“We definitely know that teams have nothing to lose by coming at us,” Johnson said. “We feel like the only pressure is the pressure you put on yourself. And we're trying to keep that same pressure on ourselves, which is to play our best every day in practice and in every match, whether we're playing against ourselves, or playing against an opponent.”

SCOUTING ALASKA ANCHORAGE (Sept. 30)
All-time series: SPU leads, 25-12. Current series streak: Anchorage won 2.
Last time: Alaska Anchorage 3, SPU 1 (27-25, 28-26, 19-25, 25-22, Nov. 14, 2009 at Anchorage). Alaska Anchorage on the Web.
Seawolves in a nutshell: Anchorage started the season at No. 24 in the national rankings, and logged a preseason tournament sweep of defending West Region champion and then-No. 2 Cal State San Bernardino. But the Seawolves were slow out of the blocks to start conference play, dropping their opener at Western Oregon and losing the following week at home against Fairbanks. They've bounced back since then and head to Seattle fresh off their four-game victory against Western Washington last Saturday. Anchorage is one of the GNAC's best defensive teams, ranking first in blocks per game (led by No. 1-ranked Robyn Burton) and second (behind SPU) in opponents' hitting percentage. Burton also is No. 3 in the conference in offensive hitting at .284.

SCOUTING ALASKA FAIRBANKS (Oct. 2)
All-time series: SPU leads, 26-9. Current series streak: SPU won 2.
Last time: SPU 3, Alaska Fairbanks 0 (25-17, 25-25, 27-25, Nov. 12, 2009 at Fairbanks). Alaska Fairbanks on the Web.
Nanooks in a nutshell: After knocking off Anchorage on Sept 18, Fairbanks carried that momentum over into its match against Western Washington the following week, taking the first game before dropping the next three, and then fell to Simon Fraser in five, as the Clan broke into the win column. The Nanooks rank third in the GNAC in kills per game at 11.93, but average just .145 hitting per match. Middle blocker Marybeth Wikander is solid on offense at .267 hitting – sixth-best in the conference – and outside hitter Tereza Bendlova's average of 3.77kills per game is No. 3. Middle blocker Erika Gage gets up for nearly one block per game, and leads the GNAC with 13 solos.

HOW TO THEY COMPARE?
(With conference ranking)             SPU            UAA             UAF
Hitting percent                                 .224 (1)       .196 (3)       .145 (7)
Opponent's hitting percent          .104 (1)        .135 (2)       .194 (7)
Kills per game                               13.76 (1)      11.58 (4)     11.93 (3)
Assists per game                        12.84 (1)       10.72 (4)     11.07 (3)
Aces per game                               1.69 (3)         1.62 (4)        1.11 (10)
Blocks per game                            1.99 (3)         2.71 (1)        1.80 (6)
Digs per game                              16.96 (1)       13.42 (9)     14.61 (7)

POLLING PLACE
Seattle Pacific keeps moving up the national ladder. The Falcons climbed two spot to No. 15 in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association Division II poll, which was released on Monday. SPU received 362 points in the voting. Last week, SPU was tied for 17th with Indianapolis.

The Falcons are one of just five remaining undefeated Division II teams in the country. The others are No. 1 Minnesota Duluth (14-0), No. 2 Wayne State of Nebraska (13-0), No. 16 Northern Michigan (12-0), and No. 24 Dowling of New York (10-0). They also are the only remaining unbeaten team in the West Region.

GNAC preseason favorite Western Washington (8-2, 5-1 GNAC) is ranked No. 18 this week.

FALCON REPLAY
--Nikki Lowell set a Seattle Pacific single-match hitting record, and Sarah Risser hammered 15 kills as the 15th-ranked Falcons kept their volleyball record perfect with a 3-0 sweep of Montana State Billings on Monday. Scores in Brougham Pavilion were 25-16, 25-12, 25-22.

Lowell (Claremont, Calif.), a freshman middle blocker, hit at an .833 clip for the match, with 10 kills and no errors on 12 total attacks. That broke the old single-match record of .750 set by Robin De Jong in a conference match at Saint Martin's on Nov. 6, 2008. Senior outside hitter Risser (Santa Barbara, Calif.) added 15 kills on 29 attacks, and hit .310 for the match.

-- Risser had 15 kills and hit .400, and Lowell came up with another solid hitting night of .353, leading Seattle Pacific to a sweep of Saint Martin's last Saturday, 25-10, 25-21, 25-7. Saint Martin's was kept to negative hitting by the Falcons' conference-leading defense. The Saints hit -.136 with 11 kills and 22 errors on 81 attacks. That is the third-lowest hitting percentage in GNAC history.

--Junior outside hitter Lindsey Wodrich (Richland, Wash./Richland HS) had 13 kills and made it a double-double with 13 digs, and Risser posted a double-double with 11 kills and 11 digs as SPU won its 100th Great Northwest Athletic Conference match, sweeping Western Oregon last Thursday night in Monmouth, 25-18, 25-18, 25-21.

MILESTONES IN THE MAKING
-- Junior libero Anna Herold now has 1,455 digs for her career and needs just 98 more to pass the SPU career mark of 1,552 set by Torii Mount from 2005-08.
--Sophomore middle blocker Angie Pricco (Briar, Wash./Blanchet HS), who already has 34 blocks this year, is just 16 away from the 100 mark for her career. She also needs just 20 more kills to reach 100.
--Senior outside hitter Sarah Risser is closing in on 2,500 total attacks for her career (she has 2,352) and 1,000 points (she's at 844).
-- Sophomore setter Shelby Swanson, averaging more than 11 assists per game, now has 884 for her career, leaving her 116 shy of 1,000.
-- Junior outside hitter Lindsey Wodrich is approaching the 500 mark in kills (currently 470) and digs (466).

MILESTONES MADE
--Junior outside hitter Paige Hoffman (Encinitas, Calif.) has passed the career 500-point mark. She now has 513.
--Sophomore middle blocker Angie Pricco played her 100th game as a Falcon on Monday against Montana State Billings.

DOUBLE-DOUBLES AND OTHER DELIGHTFUL DIGITS
--Through eight matches, the Falcons have put 15 double-doubles into the book: seven by Sarah Risser, five by Lindsey Wodrich, two by Shelby Swanson, and one by Paige Hoffman. All are kill-dig double-doubles except for Swanson's, whose are assist-dig. Last year, Risser now has 26 for her career, Wodrich has 15 and Swanson has five. Hoffman's was her first.
--As the season goes farther along, Seattle Pacific gets tougher to hit against. The Falcons have kept four straight opponents below .100 hitting for the match, including -.136 by Saint Martin's last Saturday. That was the third-lowest hitting percentage in GNAC history. SPU has kept all 13 opponents below .200, and its season average for opponents' hitting his a .104.
--The Falcons lead the GNAC in five major statistical categories: hitting percentage (.224), opponents' hitting percentage (.104), kills per game (13.76), assists per game (12.84) and digs per game (16.96). Their hitting percentage has climbed 14 points in the last three matches, helped out by a season-best .337 in Monday night's sweep of Montana State Billings. And SPU has dropped its opponents' hitting percentage by 21 points in the past three matches.
--Individually, Seattle Pacific has three GNAC leaders: Nikki Lowell in hitting (.384), Swanson in assists (11.31) and Anna Herold in digs (5.82).
-- Risser is No. 2 in kills at 4.02 per game and No. 2 in points at 4.51 per game.
--Lowell is third in blocks at 1.00 per game.
-- Swanson is now No. 6 in all of NCAA Division II for assists per game, Herold is No. 7 for digs and Risser is No. 23 for kills.
--As a team, Seattle Pacific ranks No. 9 in D-2 for assists per game, No. 12 in kills and No. 22 in digs.

ON THE HONOR ROLL
--Lindsey Wodrich was named the GNAC Player of the Week on Sept. 7 after earning MVP honors at the season-opening Seawolf Spike in Rohnert Park, Calif. Wodrich capped her performance in the Labor Day weekend tournament when she hit .455 with 17 kills as the Falcons swept past Sonoma State on the Seawolves' home court.
--Nikki Lowell made it two straight GNAC Player of the Week awards when she was recognized on Sept. 13 for her performance in the Hawaii Invitational. Lowell (Claremont, Calif.) hit a sky-high .714 in a three-game sweep of Chaminade on Sept. 11. For the four-match tournament, Lowell put down 41 kills with just seven errors on 82 total attacks.

UP NEXT
The Falcons take to the road for their next three matches. The first two of those are next week, with a trip north of the border on Thursday, Oct. 7, to Simon Fraser for their first GNAC contest against the Clan. Then on Saturday, Oct. 9, SPU visits Bellingham to take on Western Washington. Both matches begin at 7 p.m.

TICKET TALK
Tickets for SPU's home matches can be purchased at Brougham Pavilion (3414 3rd Ave. W.) on match day. Ticket windows open one hour prior to the listed start time for all home matches.

General admission tickets are priced at $6 for adults and $3 for students and senior citizens. Groups or teams of 10 or more may qualify for special general admission rates by calling (206) 281-2085 at least 72 hours in advance.

SPU students who show their school identification will be admitted free to all home matches.

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

GNAC STANDINGS 
                                                Conference         Overall
Seattle Pacific                             5-0                     13-0
Western Washington                5-1                       8-2
Western Oregon                        4-2                       6-5
Alaska Anchorage                     3-2                       8-5
Central Washington                  3-2                       5-5
Northwest Nazarene                 3-3                       3-8
Alaska Fairbanks                       2-3                       4-7
Montana State Billings             1-4                        1-12
Saint Martin's                             1-5                        1-10
Simon Fraser                             1-6                        1-10