THE SCHEDULE:
Saturday, Sept. 15             SPU at Montana State Billings, 6:00 p.m. PDT
                                                Alterowitz Gymnasium / Billings, Mont.
                                                Live stats        Live Webcast
 

        Weekly release, with complete updated stats (PDF)
 
SEATTLE – It's almost over.
 
A season-opening stretch of 12 consecutive road volleyball matches comes to an end for the Seattle Pacific Falcons this week when they visit Montana State Billings for a Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest on Saturday night. The first serve is set for 6:00 p.m. PDT.
 
From the time they headed to Hawaii in late August for a preseason tournament, the Falcons will have played in four states, three times zones, and even two countries (the U.S. and Canada).
 
SPU (4-7 overall) heads to Montana after splitting its first two matches in conference play. The Falcons opened the GNAC schedule last Thursday with a four-game victory at Simon Fraser, but then got swept by Western Washington last Saturday in Bellingham.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Fans can catch a free live Webcast from Saturday's match in Billings on Stretch Internet, the new Webcast home for the GNAC. Live stats also will be available. The appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.
 
HOW MANY MILES WAS IT?
If any of the SPU players or coaches happened to have a GPS app in their phones that has been turned on since late August, it would have been a very busy app. By the time they touch down at Seattle-Tacoma Airport from Billings on Sunday, the Falcons will have logged more than 7,600 miles either in the air or on the road since leaving for Hawaii on Aug. 28.
                                                                
That figure includes 2,680 from Seattle to Honolulu for a Honolulu Invitational and Hawaii Pacific Challenge tournaments; 2,405 from Honolulu to Oakland, and then a 28-mile drive to San Francisco State for a non-conference match;  49 miles from Frisco to Rohnert Park for the Seawolf Spike tournament; 677 from Oakland back to Seattle after the Spike; 276 round trip in SPU vans to Burnaby, B.C., for last Thursday's match at Simon Fraser, 176 round trip in vans to Bellingham for the Western Washington match last Saturday; and 1,336 round trip to Billings. Approximate total: 7,627 miles.
 
Of course, the Falcons aren't done traveling yet. After this week, they still have GNAC road matches in Monmouth, Ore. (479 miles round trip), Lacey (124 miles), Nampa, Idaho (808 round trip by air to Boise, plus a 20-mile drive each way to and from Nampa), Ellensburg (223 round trip), Fairbanks (1,521 one way by air), Anchorage (260 one way by air from Fairbanks), and then Anchorage back to Seattle (1,438 by air). Approximate total: 4,893 miles.

Altogether, SPU will travel about 12,520 miles this fall.
 





SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- Seattle Pacific has won the last four matches against Montana State Billings, all in three-game sweeps.
-- In fact, SPU's last five wins against Billings have been sweeps, the first of those being late in the 2008 season. In between, the Yellowjackets won both matches in 2009, one five games, the other in four.
-- The Falcons and Jackets both played the same four teams in the Honolulu Invitational and Hawaii Pacific Challenge. SPU split those four matches, beating Chaminade in three games and Fresno Pacific in five, and losing three-gamers to Sonoma State and Hawaii Pacific. MSUB lost four-gamers to Chaminade, Fresno Pacific and Sonoma, and was swept by Hawaii Pacific.
-- Both teams won at Simon Fraser last week (Seattle Pacific in four, Billings in three), and were swept at Western Washington.
-- The Falcons and Jackets are right next to each other in five of the major statistical categories within the GNAC: hitting (Billings No. 7, SPU No. 8), kills per game (Billing No. 5, SPU No. 6), assists per game (SPU No. 6, Billings No. 7), service aces per game (Billings No. 9, SPU No. 10), and digs per game (SPU No. 2, Billings No. 3).
 
SPEAKING OF THE FALCONS
This will be the first week since the start of the season that Seattle Pacific can catch its collective breath a bit and focus on just one opponent, with some extra practice time beforehand.
 
“It'll be nice to have an extra day to work on some things, and hopefully go get them,” head coach Chris Johnson said after Western Washington swept the Falcons last Saturday. “I'm sure we'll be eager to get back into a match after this one.”
 
Through the first 11 matches of the season, the Falcons definitely have shown what they're capable of accomplishing – such .414 hitting in the first game and .361 in the fourth game last Thursday at Simon Fraser, and a respectable performance in coming within three points of Western Washington in last Saturday's Game 1.
 
The challenge is doing that on a regular basis.
 
"We have to have consistent performances,” Johnson said. “We've got to learn how to pressure teams in a consistent, steady way.”
 
SCOUTING THE MSU BILLINGS YELLOWJACKETS: 4-6, 1-1 GNAC (tie 3^rd)
All-time series: SPU leads, 21-7. Current series streak: SPU won 4. Last time: SPU 3, Billings 0 (25-23, 25-19, 25-16; Nov. 12, 2011 at Billings.). Yellowjackets on the Web.
Yellowjackets in a nutshell: Billings was slow out of the blocks, losing its first five matches. But the Yellowjackets have won four of their last five, with three sweeps, including last Saturday's victory at Simon Fraser. Setting the pace on offense is 6-foot-1 sophomore Monica Grimsrud, last season's GNAC co-Freshman of the Year. Grimsrud has put down a team-high 119 kills, an average of 3.31 per game (No. 6 in the GNAC), and hits .176. Senior Jody Lutz, a 6-1 middle hitter, is one of Billings' best defensively, with 27 total blocks, including six solos. She also is the leading hitter for the Yellowjackets at .317 (No. 10 in the conference), having hammered 71 kills with just 18 errors on 167 attacks. Junior Erin Compton is a solid libero, averaging 5.67 digs per game.
 
HOW DO THEY COMPARE?
(2012 GNAC ranking)
                                                                SPU                        MSUB
Hitting percent                                     .171 (8)                  .176 (7)
Opponent's hitting percent               .208 (9)                  .175 (5)
Kills per game                                      11.9 (6)                  12.1 (5)
Assists per game                                11.2 (6)                  10.8 (7)
Aces per game                                       1.0 (10)                  1.1 (9)
Digs per game                                      15.8 (2)                  15.6 (3)
Blocks per game                                   1.7 (6)                    1.4 (9)
 
FALCONS REPLAY
– Madi Cavell tied her career high with 13 kills, and smashed her previous career high with 12 digs for her first collegiate double-double, and Cailin Fellows hammered 16 kills to help Seattle Pacific beat Simon Fraser last Thursday, 25-14, 23-25, 25-22, 25-19.
Cailin Fellows put down 10 kills for Seattle Pacific, but Kayla Erickson had 14 for Western Washington as the 14th-ranked Vikings swept Seattle Pacific last Saturday in Bellingham, 25-22, 25-11, 25-12.
 
DOUBLE-DOUBLE DELIGHTS
Sophomore middle blocker / opposite Madi Cavell (Keizer, Ore.) joined the double-double club in an impressive manner last Thursday night. Cavell tied her career high with 13 kills and also came up with a career-high 12 digs in a four-game victory at Simon Fraser. Cavell tripled her previous career high of four digs, set on Sept. 6 against Cal Stanislaus.
 
Senior setter Shelby Swanson (Kennewick, Wash. / Kamiakin HS) has four double-doubles this year and 21 for her career, all of hers assist-dig. Senior outside hitter Cailin Fellows has two career kill-dig double-doubles, both during the 2011 season.
 
FRESHMAN PERFECTION
No mistake about it: Freshman outside hitter Ellie Britt (Orange, Calif.) played error-free in both matches for the Falcons last week. The 6-footer had five kills on 16 swings for what then was a career-high .312 hitting percentage last Thursday in Canada against Simon Fraser. Then on Saturday night at Western Washington, she put down two kills on three attempts for .667 mark. That gave her a .368 hitting percentage for the week.
 
3,000 AND COUNTING
With her 50 assists last Thursday at Simon Fraser, Shelby Swanson moved past 3,000 for her Seattle Pacific career. Swanson comes into this week's match at Billings with 3,040 assists. She is up to No. 8 on the all-time GNAC assists list, having already climbed thee places from the No. 11 spot from which she started the 2012 schedule. The next rung on the GNAC ladder is 3,549 by former SPU star Katy Higgins.
 
That same 50-assist performance in Burnaby, B.C., elevated Swanson to No. 5 on Seattle Pacific's all-time list. She is 33 away from No. 4, currently occupied by Heather Peterson (3,073 assists from 1991-94). Higgins is No. 3.
 
Swanson now has 12 career matches with 50 or more assists: four as a sophomore in 2010, five in 2011, and three so far in 2012. That includes career-high 60 in a five-game match against Chico State just two weeks ago on Sept. 7.
 
A CAREER WEEK FOR CAVELL
Madi Cavell set two career highs and tied two others last week. She had three of those on Thursday at Simon Fraser, establishing new bests for attacks (35) and digs (12). Her 13 kills matched her total from a match against Fresno Pacific on Sept. 1. On Saturday at Western Washington, Cavell had one service aces, equaling what she had done in two previous matches, both this year.
 
BIG WEEK FOR CHEEK, TOO
Now that sophomore middle blocker Nikki Cheek (Puyallup, Wash. / Emerald Ridge HS) has been finding herself on the court instead of on the sidelines, she's making the most of her chance to play. Last Thursday at Simon Fraser, she had her first two block assists, her first set assist, and her first positive hitting percentage (.500, with two kills and no errors on four attacks). She matched her kills total at Western Washington on Saturday.
 
SO FAR, SO GOOD FOR FELLOWS
Outside hitter Cailin Fellows and coach Chris Johnson knew that Fellows could be SPU's go-to hammer at the net if they could keep her shin pain from flaring up. Nearly a dozen matches into the season, everything seems to be working out well.
 
Fellows has played in 36 of SPU's 41 games, and is by far and away the team leader for kills (128; Jessica Miller is next with 93) and total attacks (433; Miller is No. 2 on the team with 284). Fellows also has gotten up for 11 blocks, and has come up with 66 digs.
 
NATIONALLY SPEAKING
-- Shelby Swanson ranks No. 43 for assists per game in all of NCAA Division II at 9.9.
-- Sophomore libero Brianne Leenders is No. 54 in digs per game at 4.78.
-- Cailin Fellows is No. 58 in kills per game at 3.56.
 
Click on this link for a complete look at SPU's national stat rankings.
 
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 AVCA poll  released on Monday, Nebraksa-Kearney remained No. 1. Western Washington moved up one place to No. 13. Central Washington and Western Oregon both received votes. Perennial West Region power Cal State San Bernardino dropped out of the top 25.
 
NUMERICAL MILESTONES IN THE MAKING
100^th block            Shelby Swanson (has 91)
100^th kill                 Madi Cavell (has 83)
700^th dig                Shelby Swanson (has 676)
2,000^th attack       Cailin Fellows (has 1,955)
 
MILESTONES MADE LAST WEEK
100^th dig                Breanne Wiekamp (has 108)
100^th point            Madi Cavell (has 106.0)
400^th dig                Brianna Leenders (has 434)
600^th kill                Nikki Lowell (has 608)
700^th point            Cailin Fellows (has 702.0)
3,000^th assist       Shelby Swanson (has 3,040)
 
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         
Home at last. The Falcons play their first match of the year in Brougham Pavilion when Central Washington comes to town next Thursday, Sept. 27, at 7 p.m. The series against the Wildcats is closer than any other of SPU's regular conference opponents, with the Falcons owning a 33-29 edge. Northwest Nazarene visits on Saturday, Sept. 29, at 2 p.m.
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                GNAC                    Overall
Western Washington          2-0                          9-1
Alaska Anchorage               2-0                          7-3
Northwest Nazarene           1-1                          7-4
Central Washington            1-1                          6-4
Montana State Billings       1-1                          4-6
Seattle Pacific                      1-1                          4-7
Western Oregon                  0-0                          7-2
Saint Martin's                       0-0                          2-3
Simon Fraser                       0-2                          2-5
Alaska Fairbanks                0-2                          2-6