THE SCHEDULE:
Thursday, Sept. 13 Seattle Pacific at Simon Fraser, 7:00 p.m.
West Gym / Burnaby, B.C.
Live stats Live Webcast
Saturday, Sept. 15 Seattle Pacific at Western Washington, 7:00 p.m
Carver Gymnasium / Bellingham, Wash.
Live stats Live Webcast
Weekly release, with complete updated stats (PDF)
SEATTLE – So much for the preliminaries. Now, it's time for the Seattle Pacific Falcons to get down to the volleyball business that ultimately matters the most.
That would be the Great Northwest Athletic Confernece portion of their schedule. It begins this week on the road. The Falcons cross the 49th parallel into Canada on Thursday to face Simon Fraser in Burnaby, B.C.
SPU heads home after that match, but goes back up Interstate 5 on Saturday to take on nationally ranked Western Washington in Carver Gymnasium.
Both matches begin at 7 p.m.
Playing away from home won't be anything new for the Falcons. They arrived back in Seattle late Sunday night after a nine-match-, 12-day preseason tournament road journey to Hawaii and California. They'll be on the road again for their lone match next week, visiting Montana State Billings next Saturday, Sept. 22.
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Fans who won't be in Burnaby or Bellingham can watch both matches online for free on Stretch Internet, the new Webcast home for the GNAC. Live stats also will be available from both matches. The appropriate links can be found
here or at the top of this story.
SWANSON CONTENDS FOR HONORS
Shelby Swanson (Kennewick, Wash. / Kamiakin HS) was on the honorable mention for this week's GNAC Player of the Week award. The senior setter racked up 147 assists at the Seawolf Spike tournament last Friday and Saturday. That included a career-high 60 on Friday against Chico State.
SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
--
Seattle Pacific is 6-5 all-time in
GNAC openers, having won its last three, including a four-gamer at Central Washington in 2011.
-- This is the earliest the Falcons have tangled with arch-rival
Western Washington since 2002, when they opened the conference season in Bellingham.
-- Coming off a win at Cal State Stanislaus in the Seawolf Spike last Saturday, Seattle Pacific will be seeking back-to-back victories for the second time this season when it takes the court at Simon Fraser on Thursday. The Falcons beat Chaminade and Fresno Pacific in consecutive matches in Honolulu on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1.
-- SPU has won nine straight matches against
Simon Fraser, including sweeps of the last seven in a row.
-- Much different story against Western Washington. The last three matches between the Falcons and Vikings have gone all the way to five games, with SPU winning two of those. Western got the last one, however, rallying from 8-1 down in Game 5 to pull it out 18-16 last Nov. 3 in Bellingham.
-- Since becoming SPU's head coach in 2005,
Chris Johnson is 8-7 against Western Washington coach Diane Flick. In Carver Gym, Flick's teams have won five of the seven matches, including the last two.
-- SPU's longest game in any match last year came at Western, as the Falcons won Game 2 by a 32-30 score.
-- The Falcons have won 99 games in their 60 all-time matches against Western. The Vikings have won 124.
SPEAKING OF THE FALCONS
As SPU wound up its road trip with a four-game victory against Cal State Stanislaus last Saturday, coach
Chris Johnson saw some of his team's potential become reality out on the court.
“That last match, I thought we looked a lot better,” Johnson said. “It's beginning to look like we have a lineup starting to come together. We're telling the team that it's just going to take consistency. We have the talent – we've just got to make sure that we're able to put it together on every play in every match. All the things we're struggling with are very fixable.
“We have two practices before GNAC starts, and we have a lot to get done in those two days.”
Western Washington, SPU's opponent on Saturday in Bellingham, was at the same Seawolf Spike tournament as the Falcons were last week, and Johnson knows the Vikings, at 7-1 (their lone loss was in five games to UC San Diego), are the real deal.
“Western looks very strong – we knew they would be,” Johnson said. They have three or four players (four, to be precise) hitting over .300 right now. They're legit, and it's going to be in their house. … I don't know what the crowd is going to be like because their students aren't back yet. That might mellow it out a little bit, but they're definitely ready, and we need to be ready for them.”
SCOUTING THE SIMON FRASER CLAN: 2-3, 0-0 GNAC
All-time series: SPU leads, 22-9.
Current series streak: SPU won 9.
Last time: SPU 3, SFU 0 (25-20, 25-23, 25-21; Nov. 5, 2011 at Burnaby, B.C.).
Clan on the Web.
Clan in a nutshell: In their only preseason tournament, Simon Fraser split four matches at the Red Lion Invitational last weekend in Lacey, then lost a five-game non-conference match to Fraser Valley on Monday night.
Amanda Renkema, a 6-foot-1 sophomore middle blocker, has a team-leading 59 kills (3.11 per game) and .296 hitting percentage. She's just as solid defensively, topping the Clan with 18 blocks, including five solos. Sophomore outside hitter
Jessica Young is close behind with 57 kills. Sophomore libero
Alanna Chan keeps the ball in play, topping Simon Fraser with 62 digs, and she also has nine of SFU's 34 service aces.
SCOUTING THE WESTERN WASHINGTON VIKINGS
All-time series: WWU leads: 35-25.
Current series streak: WWU won 1.
Last time: WWU 3, SPU 2 (25-20, 30-32, 25-22, 20-25, 18-16; Nov. 3, 2011).
Vikings on the Web.
Vikings in a nutshell: Western went 3-1 and tied for the championship at the Seawolf Spike tournament at Sonoma State last week. The Vikings are 7-1 overall, the only loss being a five-gamer to then-No. 25 UC San Diego in the Spike. Western is powered by senior outside hiter
Marlayna Geary, the MVP at Sonoma with 76 kills and a .314 hitting percentage through four matches. (She averages a GNAC-leading 4.35 kills per game.) Geary also was the MVP at the Western Oregon Invitational a week earlier. Sophomore libero
Samantha Hutchison and senior setter
Laurie Yearout joined Geary on the Seawolf all-tournament team. Both lead the GNAC in their respective categories: Hutchinson at 6.10 digs per game; Yearout at 12.45 assists per game. Sophomore
Kayla Erickson ranks second in GNAC hitting at .402. (Geary is tied with teammate Emily Boerger for No. 8 in the GNAC at .331).
HOW DO THEY COMPARE?
(2012 GNAC ranking)
SPU SFU WWU
Hitting percent .170 (8) .133 (9) .290 (1)
Opponent's hitting percent .217 (T8) .114 (1) .213 (7)
Kills per game 11.9 (6) 11.6 (8) 14.4 (1)
Assists per game 11.2 (6) 9.9 (9) 13.8 (1)
Aces per game 1.1 (9) 1.8 (2) 1.2 (7)
Blocks per game 1.7 (7) 2.2 (2) 2.0 (5)
Digs per game 15.6 (4) 15.4 (5) 16.6 (1)
POLLING PLACE
Seattle Pacific has been picked for a fourth-place finish in the
GNAC preseason coaches poll that was released on Aug. 21. The Falcons received 61 points in the voting.
Ahead of them, the coaches predicted a tight three-way battle for the championship. Western Washington received three first-place votes and 72 points; Western Oregon got four first-place votes and 71 points; and Alaska Anchorage got two first-place votes and 70 points.
In this week's
American Volleyball Coaches Association poll released on Monday,
Nebraksa-Kearney jumped into the top spot after Concordia-St. Paul suffered its first loss of the season.
Western Washington climbed to No. 14, and
Central Washington was among others receiving votes.
FALCONS REPLAY
--
Jessica Miller hammered a career-high 20 kills, and
Shelby Swanson set up a career-high 60 assists, but Chico State ran off the first five points of the fifth and deciding game to beat SPU at the Seawolf Spike last Friday,
23-25, 33-31, 23-25, 25-18, 15-8.
-- Sonoma State limited the Falcons to just 26 kills in sweeping past the Falcons to conclude the first day of the Seawolf Spike,
25-19, 25-16, 25-19.
--
Cailin Fellows had 12 kills, and
Madi Cavell added nine on Saturday morning, but 25
th-ranked UC San Diego came up with eight service aces to beat Seattle Pacific last Saturday in the Spike,
25-18, 25-13, 25-19.
-- Fellows tied her career high with 21 kills, and Miller pounded 17 on SPU finished its road trip by coming from behind to beat Cal State Stanislaus,
17-25, 25-13, 25-15, 25-23.
DOUBLE-DOUBLE DELIGHTS
With 14 digs to go along with her career-high 60 assists in a five-gamer against Chico State last Friday at the Seawolf Spike, senior setter
Shelby Swanson now has four double-doubles this season, all of them assist-dig. That gives her 21 for her career. She logged three consecutive double-doubles two weeks ago in Hawaii.
The only other Falcon currently with double-doubles is senior outside hitter
Cailin Fellows (Edmonds, Wash./Edmonds-Woodway HS) with two, both of hers being kill-dig during the 2011 season.
THAT'S THE LAST ONE
Since coming to Seattle Pacific in 2011, senior outside hitter
Cailin Fellows had met or bettered her career highs in every major statistical category except one from her days Boise State, where she played for two seasons. That one exception was solo blocks. She had one in six different matches, most recently on Nov. 6, 2010, when the Broncos played at Nevada.
Now, Fellows has updated that category as well. She recorded a solo last Friday in the five-game match against Chico State.
CAN YOU DIG IT? WIEKAMP SURE CAN
Heading out for that nine-match road trip on Aug. 28, it was expected that freshman libero/defensive
specialist
Breanne Wiekamp (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) would get her fair share of playing time. Last week in California, she showed why she has earned a regular spot in coach
Chris Johnson's lineup. On Friday against Chico State at the Seawolf Spike, she had a career-high 17 digs, nearly doubling her old record of nine from the previous week in Hawaii.
That mark lasted barely more than 24 hours. The next day in SPU's tournament finale against Cal State Stanislaus, Wiekamp dug up 29 balls – just one less than she had in the first three matches of the tournament combined. She is one of just three Falcons – junior middle blocker
Nikki Lowell (Claremont, Calif.) and sophomore libero
Brianna Leenders (Portland, Ore.) are the others – to have played in all 34 games so far.
NEXT RUNG IN SIGHT FOR SWANSON
With her 147 assists last week, setter
Shelby Swanson is now just 29 short of hitting the 3,000 milestone. She'll head to Burnaby on Thursday with 2,979. She begins this week in the No. 9 spot on the all-time GNAC assists list, and is 38 away from No. 8, currently occupied by Amy Herron of Western Oregon. She racked up 3,017 from 2000-03.
After that, it's a bit of a distance up to No. 7, which now belongs to former SPU star Katy Higgins. She had 3,543 assists from 2000-03.
WHERE'S ARNOLD IN THE HITTING STATS?
Last week, freshman middle blocker
Jackie Arnold (Anaheim, Calif.) ranked No. 4 among the GNAC hitting
her .407 percentage. Arnold comes into this week at a very solid .374, which is high enough to be No. 6. But with 91 attacks in 32 games, Arnold averages 2.84 attacks per game – and the minimum to be considered is 3.0. In her first nine collegiate matches, Arnold has put down 42 kills with just eight errors.
Of the 21 players on the GNAC list of leading hitters, only two players are in single-digit errors, both of whom have nine.
MILLER, CAVELL FINDING THE GROOVE
Now that they've become a regular part of the SPU lineup, sophomore outside hitter
Jessica Miller (Fife, Wash. / Fife HS) and sophomore middle blocker
Madi Cavell (Keizer, Ore.) are showing how productive they can be on a regular basis.
The 6-foot-3 Miller has been in double-digit kills in three of her nine matches this season, topped by her career high of 20 last Friday against Chico State. She has hit for .300 or better in three of the last five matches, and has come up with between four and eight digs in seven matches. She also served up a career-high five aces – including three in a row – against Cal State Stanislaus on Saturday.
Cavell, who stands an even 6 feet, had back-to-back season-best hitting performance of .238, then .263 on Saturday. She also had four block assists in three consecutive contests last week, and has come up with that many in five matches overall this season. She is tied with
Nikki Lowell for the team lead with 27 total blocks (25 assisted, two solos).
NUMERICAL MILESTONES IN THE MAKING
100th block Shelby Swanson (has 89)
100th dig Breanne Wiekamp (has 90)
100th point Madi Cavell (has 83.5)
400th dig Brianna Leenders (has 398)
600th kill Nikki Lowell (has 598)
700th point Cailin Fellows (has 674.5)
3,000th assist Shelby Swanson (has 2,971)
MILESTONES MADE LAST WEEK
100th kill Jessica Miller (has 121)
200th point Shelby Swanson (has 203.5)
700th point Nikki Lowell (has 727.0)
AROUND THE GNAC
Click on
this link for results, stats, news and notes from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
UP NEXT
SPU is back on the road next week, but at least this time, it's just for one match. The Falcons will play at
Montana State Billings on Saturday, Sept. 22, at 6:00 p.m. PDT. They finally get to play their home opener on Thursday, Sept. 27, against Central Washington at 7 p.m. on Brougham Pavilion.
GNAC STANDINGS
GNAC Overall
Western Washington 0-0 7-1
Western Oregon 0-0 5-2
Northwest Nazarene 0-0 6-3
Alaska Anchorage 0-0 5-3
Central Washington 0-0 5-3
Simon Fraser 0-0 2-2
Montana State Billings 0-0 3-5
Seattle Pacific 0-0 3-6
Alaska Fairbanks 0-0 2-4
Saint Martin's 0-0 0-3
