THE SCHEDULE:
Saturday, Oct. 20 Montana State Billings at Seattle Pacific, 7:00 p.m.
Brougham Pavilion (2,650) / Seattle, Wash.
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Weekly release, with complete updated stats (PDF)
SEATTLE – Halftime on the Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball schedule finds the Seattle Pacific Falcons steadily gaining some momentum.
The Falcons have won four of their last five as they prepare to start the second half of GNAC play on Saturday at home against Montana State Billings. The first serve is at 7:00 p.m.
The visit by the Yellowjackets finishes a three-match homestand, the longest of the season for SPU. The Falcons, who have their final bye of the season on Thursday, then will alternate weeks of two road matches and two home matches for the final four weeks of the regular season.
Seattle Pacific is coming off of a split of last week's matches in Brougham. After a five-game loss to Alaska Anchorage on Thursday, the Falcons bounced Alaska Fairbanks in four games on Saturday, dominating the last two games.
SPU visits Northwest Nazarene next Thursday, and Central Washington next Saturday.
ALUMNI DAY COMING UP
The Falcons will host their annual Alumni Day on Saturday, Nov. 3, when Western Oregon visits for a GNAC match. The alumni event is in Falcon Lounge on the third floor of Brougham Pavilion from noon-2 p.m. Sandwiches and beverages will be provided.
More information about the event is available by contacting head coach
Chris Johnson at (206) 281-2263, or by e-mailing to
vbchris@spu.edu.
SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- A Falcons victory would boost them past the Yellowjackets in the conference standings. SPU potentially could get into a fourth-place tie, depending on the outcome of Western Oregon's two matches in Alaska (Fairbanks on Thursday, Anchorage on Saturday).
-- Montana State Billings was one of the teams Seattle Pacific lost to during a 1-3 start in GNAC play. The Yellowjackets won in four games on Sept. 22 in Billings.
-- In that match,
Monica Grimsrud (13 kills, .300 hitting),
Jody Lutz (12 kills, .455 hitting) and
Taylor Adams (11 kills, .588 hitting) dominated at the net for Billings.
-- Since that 1-3 start, the Falcons have added 20 points to their team hitting average (jumping from .178 to .198), and have knocked their opponents' average down 10 points (from .212 to .202).
-- SPU coach
Chris Johnson is 6-6 all-time against Billings. This will be just his second match against Yellowjackets coach
Lisa Axel, who took charge of the program this past summer.
-- Last Saturday's victory against Alaska Fairbanks was the first home match this season that didn't go the five-game limit. The first three did.
SPEAKING OF THE FALCONS
Nice as it was to see his team lock up the victory against Alaska Fairbanks last Saturday, it was how they did it – both offensively and defensively – that pleased SPU head coach
Chris Johnson.
“We came out with a fire in our belly the last couple games and really shut down their offense,” Johnson said. “It was just playing better defense, period – it wasn't even adjustments, it was just playing better.”
Ditto on offense, as the Falcons significantly cut down their attack errors and got into a groove, especially after being down nine points in the first game.
“We started to come back, had fun, relaxed, and started to play our system the way we know how to play,” Johnson said. “We have a lot of good hitters on this team. When we play well and pass well, we can use all of them. It's just about minimizing errors for us and making sure we're hitting in from everywhere. Shelby (Swanson) is doing a great job of distributing the ball. When she has a good dig or a good pass, then she's able to do that, and that's when we're at our best.”
Johnson's team plans to take full advantage of having just one match this week.
“We'll have more time to prepare, more time to work on things,” he said. “We have a number of kids dealing with some minor injuries, so it will be good to take an extra day off this week.”
SCOUTING THE MSU BILLINGS YELLOWJACKETS (8-9, 5-4 GNAC)
All-time series: SPU leads, 21-8.
Current series streak: MSUB won 1.
Last time: MSUB 3, SPU 1 (25-21, 25-15, 18-25, 25-17; Sept. 22, 2012 at Billings).
Yellowjackets on the Web.
Yellowjackets in a nutshell: Billings got off to a quick start in the GNAC, winning three of its first four, and is 2-3 since then, including a four-game loss at home to Alaska Anchorage last Saturday. Spearheading the Yellowjackets attack is 6-foot-1 sophomore middle blocker Monica Grimsrud, who has 213 kills, an average of 3.38 per game (No. 5 in the GNAC). MSUB's top hitter is senior middle Jody Lutz with her .304 percentage (No. 8 in GNAC) and the team's second-leading kills average of 2.27 per game. Sophomore middle/outside hitter Chelsey Walter is another threat up front with her 2.24 average kills per game. Lutz and Grimsrud also are tough defensively. Lutz has 49 blocks with 13 solos (both team highs), and Grimsrud has 35 blocks. Junior outside hitter Taylor Adams also is a factor with 39 blocks.
HOW DO THEY COMPARE?
(2012 GNAC ranking)
SPU MSUB
Hitting pct. .198 (6) .176 (7)
Opponent's hitting pct. .202 (9) .170 (3)
Kills per game 12.7 (4) 12.1 (6)
Assists per game 11.7 (4) 11.1 (6)
Aces per game 1.2 (T8) 0.9 (10)
Digs per game 16.2 (3) 16.1 (4)
Blocks per game 1.64 (8) 1.62 (9)
FALCONS REPLAY
-- After losing the first two games, SPU rallied to take the next two and force a fifth, but then saw Alaska Anchorage put together a four-point scoring run to take charge and pull out a GNAC last Thursday in Brougham Pavilion,
25-19, 25-21, 22-25, 13-25, 15-12.
--
Nikki Lowell hammered 15 kills and hit a season-high .565,
Shelby Swanson recorded yet another double-double, and the Falcons effectively shut down Alaska Fairbanks' attack in the final two games to rack up a
27-25, 23-25, 25-12, 25-10 victory last Saturday.
DOUBLE-DOUBLE DELIGHTS
Shelby Swanson (Kennewick, Wash. / Kamiakin HS) continued her binge of double-doubles with two more last week. Swanson had 48 assists against both Alaska Anchorage and Alaska Fairbanks, also coming up with 15 digs against the Seawolves and 11 against the Nanooks. The senior setter now has nine for the season (including five in the last six matches) and 26 for her career.
Senior outside hitter
Cailin Fellows (Edmonds, Wash. / Edmonds-Woodway HS) has two this year and four for her career. Sophomore middle blocker / opposite
Madi Cavell (Keizer, Ore.) has one, giving SPU an even dozen as a team this season.
SCHWEND, CHEEK INTO THE SPOTLIGHT
While compiling their scouting reports, Alaska Anchorage and Alaska Fairbanks probably weren't looking for
Nicole Schwend and
Nikki Cheek. But the Falcon juniors definitely got the attention of both teams.
On Thursday night against Anchorage, junior outside hitter Schwend (Oregon City, Ore.) came off the bench to slam 10 kills on 19 attacks and hit a season-best .263. The kills total was five times her previous career high of two (last year against Saint Martin's), and her attack total was more than three times as many as her old one (6 in that same Saint Martin's match).
Cheek (Puyallup, Wash. / Emerald Ridge HS) got her chance in a starting role on Saturday against Fairbanks. She came up with five kills (more than doubling her old mark of two, which she had twice), and swung 13 times, way better than her previous best of five attacks. Cheek also was a factor defensively with four block assists. Her old high was two on Sept. 13 at Simon Fraser.
SWING – AND NO MISS
Led by a standout effort from sophomore outside hitter
Jessica Miller, the Falcons had not one, not two, but
three error-free performances against Alaska Fairbanks. Miller (Fife, Wash. / Fife HS) had nine kills on 29 attacks – the highest kill total with no errors this season for Seattle Pacific.
Nikki Cheek had five kills on 13 attacks, and
Shelby Swanson, who usually is busy setting up her teammates but occasionally gets a couple tries of her own, had one kill on two attacks.
For the season, Falcon players have put up 12 error-free performances of two or more kills, and another 12 with one kill on one or more attacks.
LEENDERS SERVES UP SURGES
Basketball players go on shooting streaks; baseball players have their hitting streaks. During the past four matches, sophomore libero
Brianna Leenders has gone on several serving streaks.
Leenders (Portland, Ore.) has started seven SPU scoring runs of three or more points with her effective serving. Three of those have been for three straight points; two more have been for four; one has been for five, and one of them – an eight-pointer in Game 4 against Alaska Anchorage last week – was instrumental in helping the Falcons square that match at two games apiece.
While her teammates typically finish what she starts with either a kill or a well-timed block, Leenders sometimes finishes the point herself, having recorded eight aces during those four matches.
LOOK OUT FOR LOWELL
Sure,
Nikki Lowell's .565 hitting percentage against Alaska Fairbanks last Saturday was her season high. But anyone who has watched Lowell play during the past four weeks was hardly surprised by that. In short, the junior middle blocker from Claremont, Calif., has been almost unstoppable at the net.
In the seven matches since hitting a sub-par .100 at Western Washington on Sept. 15, Lowell has found the floor at a .380 clip. She has been at .300 or better in six of those matches. Along with that .565 was a .448 afternoon against Northwest Nazarene on Sept. 29. She has been in double-digit kills four time in those same seven matches, and has boosted her season hitting mark 55 points, going from .255 after the Western match to .310 heading into this week.
NATIONALLY SPEAKING
--
Cailin Fellows is as No. 24 for kills in NCAA Division II at 3.88 per game.
- -Fellows also ranks No. 45 in points per game at 4.15.
--
Shelby Swanson is No. 32 in assists per game at 10.38.
-- Sophomore libero
Brianna Leenders is No. 45 in digs per game at 4.15.
Click on
this link to see how SPU and other GNAC teams and players rank in the national stats.
POLLING PLACE
In this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA)
national poll released on Monday,
Southwest Minnesota State moved up one spot to replace
Nebraksa-Kearney at No. 1, receiving 26 of the 32 first-place votes. The highest-ranked West Region team remains
Brigham Young-Hawaii, which climbed two places to No. 8.
Western Washington fell one spot to 15
th, and
Central Washington climbed one to No. 21. In all, six West teams are now in the top 25, and four more were among 'others receiving votes.
NUMERICAL MILESTONES IN THE MAKING
100th block Shelby Swanson (has 97)
100th point Jackie Arnold (has 84.0)
200th dig Breanne Wiekamp (has 191)
200th point Madi Cavell (has 182.0)
300th dig Cailin Fellows (has 280)
600th dig Brianna Leenders (has 581)
700th kill Nikki Lowell (has 684)
800th dig Shelby Swanson (has 775)
800th kill Cailin Fellows (has 775)
MILESTONES MADE LAST WEEK
200th kill Jessica Miller (has 206)
800th point Nikki Lowell (has 831.0)
AROUND THE GNAC
Click on
this link for a look a news, notes, results and stats from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
UP NEXT
Seattle Pacific continues its second go-round against GNAC competition next week with a road trip to
Northwest Nazarene on Thursday, Oct. 25 at 6 p.m. PDT, and
Central Washington on Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. The Falcons beat NNU in five games last month in Seattle, but dropped a five-gamer to Central.
GNAC STANDINGS
GNAC Overall
Western Washington 8-1 15-2
Central Washington 8-1 14-4
Alaska Anchorage 7-2 12-5
Western Oregon 5-3 12-5
Montana State Billings 5-4 8-9
Seattle Pacific 5-4 8-10
Northwest Nazarene 3-6 10-10
Saint Martin's 2-6 4-9
Alaska Fairbanks 1-8 3-12
Simon Fraser 0-9 3-13
