THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Nov. 6 Central Washington at Seattle Pacific, 7:00 p.m. Brougham Pavilion (2,650) / Seattle, Wash.
Live Webcast Live stats Saturday, Nov. 8 Northwest Nazarene at Seattle Pacific, 1:00 p.m. Brougham Pavilion (2,650) / Seattle, Wash.
Live Webcast Live stats Weekly release, with complete updated stats (PDF) PHOTO GALLERY: SPU vs. Montana State Billings (Nov. 1) SEATTLE – It was just two months ago when the Seattle Pacific Falcons were at the front end of one of their busiest home volleyball schedules ever.
Now, the last two matches of that schedule are at hand – and both are against opponents very likely bound for the NCAA Tournament.
The Falcons close out the Brougham Pavilion portion of their 2014 calendar this week when Central Washington comes to town on Thursday, followed by a visit from No. 11 Northwest Nazarene on Saturday. The first serve against the Wildcats on will be at 7 p.m. The Saturday match against NNU begins at 1 p.m., and will include a Senior Day ceremony prior to the first serve.
FOLLOW IT LIVELive stats and a free live Webcast will be available from this week's match. The Webcast will be through Stretch Internet, the official Internet provider of the GNAC. Appropriate links to both the Webcasts and stats can be found at the top of this story.
TICKET TALKTickets for home matches can be purchased at the door on match days. Prices are $6 for adults and $3 for youths, students, and seniors (65 and older). Complimentary programs are available at the entrance to the gym.
SENIOR DAY IS SATURDAYSeattle Pacific will recognize the five senior members of this year's team prior to Saturday's first serve against Northwest Nazarene.
A pre-match ceremony will honor outside hitters
Madi Cavell and
Jessica Miller, setters
Sara Biondi and
Kendall Carver, and libero
Brianna Leenders.
Cavell, Miller, Carver, and Leenders have spent their entire careers at SPU. Biondi has played with the team for the past three seasons after beginning her career at Washington State.
SCOUTING CENTRAL WASHINGTON: 17-6, 10-5 GNAC (4th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 34-33.
Current series streak: CWU won 3.
Last time: CWU 3, SPU 0 (25-20, 25-13, 25-16; Oct. 11 at Ellensburg).
Wildcats on the Web.
Wildcats in a nutshell: Central kept it going last week, capped by a come-from-behind 3-2 victory against then-No. 9 Western Washington in Ellensburg. The Wildcats have won three straight and seven of their past eight since an early-season three-match skid. They're getting it done with strong play on both sides of the ball. Not only are they the top hitting team in the conference (.224, tied with Northwest Nazarene), they rank No. 2 in kills per game and No. 2 in blocks. The top four Central hitters are all above .200, led by sophomore outside hitter
Jordan Deming's .253 average and junior hitter / middle blocker
Linden Firethorne's .241. Firethorne also ranks No. 3 in kills at 3.65 per game, and she had nine against the Falcons last month.
Kaitlin Quirk averages 1.11 blocks, the No. 3 mark in the GNAC. Another offensive threat, as SPU found out in October, is outside hitter
Kiah Jones, who came off the bench for a team-leading 11 kills.
SCOUTING NORTHWEST NAZARENE: 21-2, 14-1 GNAC (1st)
All-time series: SPU leads, 20-9.
Current series streak: NNU won 4.
Last time: NNU 3, SPU 0 (25-15, 25-19, 25-12; Oct. 9 at Nampa, Idaho).
Crusaders on the Web.
Crusaders in a nutshell: After getting left out of last year's NCAA Tournament, Northwest Nazarene has left no doubt that not only is it going to the postseason, it might very well have homecourt advantage. The Crusaders are No. 1 in the West and No. 11 in the country. They come into the week on an eight-match winning streak that includes last Thursday's sweep of Western Washington in Nampa, thereby reversing their only conference loss of the season. What makes NNU so good? Pick a stat, as it leads the GNAC in hitting percentage (tied with Central Washington), lowest opponent's hitting percentage, along with most kills, assists, and blocks per game.
Madi Farrell, a 6-foot-2 middle blocker, hits at a .304 clip, one of just three GNAC players above .300. The kills can come from several players, whether it's 6-3 outside hitter
Elayna Rice (2.88), 6-4 middle blocker
Andrea Terpstra (2.85) or 5-9 outside
Kendra Bodine (2.74), among others. All three were in double figures on Oct. 9 against the Falcons (11 each for Rice and Bodine; 10 for Terpstra). Terpstra also is the GNAC's best blocker at 1.17 per game.
FALCONS REPLAY-- Montana State Billings slammed 13 more kills than Seattle Pacific last Saturday and went on to sweep the Falcons in Brougham Pavilion,
25-23, 25-23, 25-19.
Jessica Miller led SPU with eight kills.
NATIONALLY SPEAKING
Madi Cavell ranks in the top 20 among NCAA Division II players in one category, and is among the top 50 in two others heading into this week's matches:
--12
th in attacks per game (11.84)
--38
th in total attacks (1,006)
--49
th in points per game (4.24)
The highest-ranked Falcon in addition to Cavell is
Brianna Leenders, who is 108
th in digs per game at 4.52.
SPU's highest ranking among the 287 teams playing D2 volleyball is 67
th in blocks per game (2.05).
Click on
this link to see how Seattle Pacific stacks up nationally. Click on
this link to see where other GNAC teams and players rank within Division II.
UP NEXTSeattle Pacific will wind up the season next week with road matches at
Western Oregon on Thursday and at
Saint Martin's on Saturday. The Falcons opened GNAC play at home against those two schools in September, sweeping the Saints and twice coming from a game down to beat the Wolves in five.
The match against Saint Martin's will be played at Capital High School in Lacey. The school's regular homecourt in Marcus Pavilion will be busy with the state high school tournament.
GNAC STANDINGS
GNAC OverallNorthwest Nazarene 14-1 21-2
Alaska Anchorage 13-2 19-4
Western Washington 10-4 17-6
Central Washington 10-5 17-6
Simon Fraser 8-6 14-8
Montana State Billings 6-8 11-12
Seattle Pacific 5-9 11-11
Alaska Fairbanks 3-10 3-20
Western Oregon 2-12 4-18
Saint Martin's 1-13 4-22
