THE SCHEDULE:
Thursday, Nov. 8 Seattle Pacific at Alaska Fairbanks, 8:00 p.m. PST
The Patty Center / Fairbanks, Alaska.
Live stats Live Webcast
Saturday, Nov. 10 Seattle Pacific at Alaska Anchorage, 9:00 p.m. PST
Wells Fargo Center / Anchorage, Alaska
Live stats Live Webcast
Weekly release, with complete updated stats (PDF)
SEATTLE – The Seattle Pacific Falcons had the upper hand on one Alaska challenger and barely fell short against the other last month in Brougham Pavilion.
This week, they'll try to take care of both teams when they head north for Great Northwest Athletic Conference matches against Alaska Fairbanks on Thursday at 8 p.m. PST and Alaska Anchorage on Saturday at 9 p.m. PST.
This will be final road trip of the season for SPU.
When the Alaska schools visited Seattle in October, the Falcons fell two games behind Anchorage, but rallied to force a fifth before the Seawolves finally prevailed. Then, after dividing the first two games against Fairbanks, the Falcons completely dominated coming out of the intermission and racked up a four-game victory.
SPU is coming off a split of hits home matches last week, sweeping Saint Martin's, but falling to red-hot Western Oregon in a sweep.
The season winds up next week with a visit from nationally ranked Western Washington on Thursday, Nov. 15, followed by Simon Fraser on Nov. 17, both at 7 p.m.
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Both of this week's matches will have a free live Webcasts on Stretch Internet, the new Webcast home for the GNAC. Live stats also will be available from both venues. The appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.
SENIOR DAY ON THE HORIZON
When the Falcons come back to Brougham Pavilion next week, it will mark the final two home matches for seniors
Shelby Swanson and
Cailin Fellows. Their contributions to the program will be honored during a pre-match ceremony on Saturday, Nov. 17, against Simon Fraser.
SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- In the first Fairbanks match, Seattle Pacific hit a then-season best .289. Since then, it has topped that mark twice, including last week's now-season best.473 against Saint Martin's.
-- SPU coach
Chris Johnson is 13-2 all-time against the Nanooks and 8-7 all-time against Alaska Anchorage.
--If the Falcons beat Fairbanks, they will have their second season series sweep. They already have done that against Saint Martin's.
--Seattle Pacific is seeking its first victory on Anchorage's floor since 2007.
--Senior outside hitter
Cailin Fellows (Edmonds, Wash. / Edmonds-Woodway HS) comes into the week with more kills (337) than any other GNAC player. Her total of 337 is seven more than Western Washington's
Marlayna Geary. But Geary is No. 1 in kills per game at 4.23 on the basis of having played in 78 games this fall. Fellows is next at 4.01, having played 84 games.
--SPU junior middle blocker
Nicole Schwend (Oregon City, Ore.) had a career night against the Seawolves last month, slamming 10 kills on 19 attacks. Prior to that, her single-match bests had been two kills and six attacks.
--Fellow Falcons junior middle blocker
Nikki Lowell (Claremont, Calif.) certainly enjoyed playing both Alaska schools. In the two October matches combined, she had 27 kills on 44 swings for a .477 hitting percentage.
SPEAKING OF THE FALCONS
Although this week's opponents are near the opposite end of the GNAC standings, Seattle Pacific coach
Chris Johnson isn't expecting an easy night in either locale.
“Fairbanks has been playing well, and they have an outside hitter (Sam Harthun) that we have to defend well,” Johnson said. (Harthun averages 3.45 kills per game, and had a match-high 17 against SPU last month). And it has been a while since we've won in Anchorage.
“We know we can play well against both teams,” Johnson said. “We have to make sure we go and do it.”
An offensive performance similar to what they enjoyed last Thursday against Saint Martin's would go a long way toward that.
“We were killing them at a high rate, but better than that was hitting it in,” Johnson said. “We had just less than eight percent hitting errors (in the Saints match). When you do that, you're tough to beat.”
SCOUTING THE ALASKA FAIRBANKS NANOOKS: 5-15, 3-11 GNAC (tie 8th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 31-9.
Current series streak: SPU won 7.
Last time: SPU 3, UAF 1 (27-25, 23-25, 25-12, 25-10; Oct. 13 at Seattle).
Nanooks on the Web.
Nanooks in a nutshell: After a tough stretch during which it lost 10 straight and 13 of 14, Alaska Fairbanks has come out on top in two of its last four matches. That includes a five-gamer at Simon Fraser last Thursday when the Nanooks won a pair of games that went to 30 (31-29 in the first; 30-28 in the third). Freshman outside hitter
Sam Harthun, a 6-footer, ranks No. 6 in GNAC kills at 3.45 per game (262 total). Harthun, who also has 14 service aces, six solo blocks and 24 block assists, is No. 6 in points per game in the conference at 3.87(294.0 total). She hits at .177. Senior libero
Allison Oddy is No. 7 in GNAC digs at 4.51 per game (343 total). Freshman outside hitter / opposite
Ixchelle Oleson is the team's leading hitter at .183.
SCOUTING THE ALASKA ANCHORAGE SEAWOLVES: 15-7, 10-4 GNAC (tie 3rd)
All-time series: SPU leads, 27-15.
Current series streak: UAA won 1.
Last time: UAA 3, SPU 2 (25-19, 25-21, 22-25, 13-25, 15-12; Oct. 11 at Seattle).
Seawolves on the Web.
Seawolves in a nutshell: Anchorage has two of the GNAC's top 10 in kills per game – and they're both going to be around for a while. Freshman outside hitter / middle blocker
Katelynn Zanders is No. 7 at 3.32 per game (256 total), and freshman outside hitter
Julia Mackey is No. 9 at 3.06 per game (245 total). Mackey led UAA with 13 in the first match against the Falcons; Zanders was limited to five. Junior middle blocker
Jodi Huddleston is No. 6 in conference hitting at .305, which includes a .286 percentage (8-2-21) in the first SPU match. Senior setter
Kimya Jafroudi is easily the most dangerous server in the GNAC with 40 aces – nine more than the next-best total. Junior setter / defensive specialist
Siobhan Johansen helps keep the ball alive with an average of 4.58 digs per game (371 total), putting her No. 6 on the GNAC list.
HOW DO THEY COMPARE?
(2012 GNAC ranking)
SPU UAF UAA
Hitting pct. .209 (3) .156 (8) .207 (5)
Opponent's hitting pct. .198 (8) .218 (10) .162 (2)
Kills per game 12.9 (3) 11.8 (8) 13.0 (2)
Assists per game 12.0 (3) 11.3 (7) 12.1 (2)
Aces per game 1.3 (8) 1.2 (9) 1.6 (2)
Digs per game 16.1 (4) 14.7 (9) 16.5 (2)
Blocks per game 1.7 (8) 1.2 (10) 1.8 (7)
FALCONS REPLAY
--
Cailin Fellows had 14 kills,
Shelby Swanson moved up to third on the school career assist list, and
Nikki Lowell's .611 hitting paced the Falcons hit a season-high .473 mark as they swept past Saint Martin's last Thursday,
25-13, 25-20, 25-14.
-- Fellows and Swanson each had double-doubles, and Lowell added 10 kills, but Western Oregon led almost all the way in all three games on the way to a
25-17, 25-18, 25-20 sweep last Saturday in Brougham Pavilion.
DOUBLE-DOUBLE DELIGHTS
Senior setter
Shelby Swanson (Kennewick, Wash. / Kamiakin HS) had a double-double of 32 assists and 11 digs last Saturday against Western Oregon for her 12
th double-double of the season and the 29
th of her career.
Senior outside hitter
Cailin Fellows (Edmonds, Wash. / Edmonds-Woodway HS) also double-doubled against the Wolves, with 15 kills and 12 digs. That was her fourth of the season and the sixth of her career.
Sophomore opposite / middle blocker
Madi Cavell (Keizer, Ore.) has two career double-doubles, both this season.
As a team, Seattle Pacific now has 18 double-doubles this season.
NOW THAT'S A JUMP IN HITTING
A little more than a month ago, the Falcons ranked No. 8 in GNAC hitting at .170. Heading into this week, they're all the way up to No. 3 at .209, thanks in large part to last week's .473 performance against Saint Martin's. In that three-game sweep, Seattle Pacific hit for better than .500 in two games, giving them a stretch of three games in seven with .500 or better hitting.
The .473 mark was 21 points shy of the school record .494 from an Oct. 1, 1987 match against Concordia of Portland during just the second season of SPU's volleyball program.
The last time the Falcons finished a match in that neighborhood was Sept. 9, 2011, when they hit exactly .400 (40 kills, 8 errors, 80 attacks) in a sweep of Nebraska Omaha at the Colorado Premier Challenge in Denver.
THREE RUNGS IN ONE WEEK FOR SWANSON
Shelby Swanson started last week in No. 4 on the Seattle Pacific all-time assists list, and in No. 8 on the GNAC career list, totaling 3,511.
On Thursday against Saint Martin's, Swanson moved up to No. 3 and No. 7, respectively, by picking up 42 assists. That moved her past former SPU setter
Katy Higgins' 3,549 (2000-03). On the GNAC list it left Swanson just seven short of the No. 6 GNAC spot, occupied by
Alexa Sherman of Alaska Fairbanks (3,560 from 2006-09). Swanson took care of that with eight assists in Saturday's first game.
Swanson starts this week with 3,585 assists. She has a realistic chance of moving up one more place in the conference to No. 5, which currently belongs to
Mindy Swanson (no relation), who had 3,742 for Northwest Nazarene from 2000-03.
COUNTDOWN TO 1,000
Senior outside hitter
Cailin Fellows is 75 points away from 1,000 for her career. Fellows picked up 30 points in last week's two
matches (29 kills, one service ace). She has four matches remaining. Junior middle blocker
Nikki Lowell also took a step closer to 1,000 points. She collected 23½ last week (22 kills, three block assists) and now totals 892.0, with four matches plus all of next season to get there.
NATIONALLY SPEAKING
--
Cailin Fellows is at No. 17 for kills in NCAA Division II at 4.01 per game. She's up five places from last week.
-- Fellows also ranks No. 34 in points per game at 4.29, up eight places.
--
Shelby Swanson is No. 26 in assists per game at 10.69.
-- Sophomore libero
Brianna Leenders (Portland, Ore.) is No. 57 in digs per game at 4.74.
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 is still No. 1, again receiving 29 of the 32 first-place votes.
Brigham Young-Hawaii, at No. 8, remains the highest-ranked West Region team. The Seasiders again got one first-place vote.
Western Washington remained at No. 17. Central Washington remains on the 'others receiving votes' list at No. 31 overall. Perennial West Region power
Cal State San Bernardino, which started out 3-6, but is 15-1 since then, joined the rankings for the first time this season, coming in at No. 25.
NUMERICAL MILESTONES IN THE MAKING
100th kill Jackie Arnold (has 87)
200th kill Madi Cavell (has 197)
900th assist Sara Biondi (has 898)
1,000th point Cailin Fellows (has 925.0)
Nikki Lowell (has 892.0)
3,743rd assist* Shelby Swanson (has 3,585)
* 3,743 will put Swanson at No. 5 on the all-time GNAC list.
MILESTONES MADE LAST WEEK
3,543rd assist* Shelby Swanson (has 3,585)
* 3,543 put Swanson at No. 3 on the all-time SPU list and No. 7 on the all-time GNAC list.
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 wraps up the 2012 schedule next week at home against nationally ranked
Western Washington on Thursday, Nov. 15, followed by a visit from Simon Fraser on Saturday, Nov. 17. Both contests begin at 7 p.m. It'll be Senior Night against
Simon Fraser. The Falcons opened GNAC play on the road against those same schools, beating the Clan in four games, but falling to the Vikings in three.
GNAC STANDINGS
GNAC Overall
Western Washington 13-2 20-3
Western Oregon 11-3 18-5
Central Washington 10-4 17-7
Alaska Anchorage 10-4 15-7
Seattle Pacific 8-6 11-12
Montana State Billings 7-7 10-12
Northwest Nazarene 5-9 12-13
Saint Martin's 3-11 6-14
Alaska Fairbanks 3-11 5-15
Simon Fraser 1-14 4-18
