THE SCHEDULE
Tuesday, Oct. 6         Seattle Pacific at Saint Martin's, 7:00 p.m.
                                      Marcus Pavilion / Lacey, Wash.
                                      Live Webcast        Live stats                 
 

        Weekly release, with complete updated stats (PDF)

SEATTLE – No time to rest for the Seattle Pacific Falcons.
 
Having returned on Sunday from their annual Alaska road trip, the Falcons get just one day of practice time before getting into the vans for Tuesday night's Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball match at Saint Martin's.
 
The first serve in Marcus Pavilion is set for 7:00 p.m.
 
After winning two in a row the previous week, SPU will be looking to get back on track after rough outings at Alaska Anchorage last Thursday and Alaska Fairbanks on Saturday. The Falcons fell in three to the Seawolves and in four to the Nanooks.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Free Webcasts and free live stats will be available for all GNAC matches, home and away. The appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.
 
VOLLEYBALL ON TUESDAY?
The expansion of the GNAC to 11 teams this year meant some adjustments to the schedule – specifically, the introduction of Tuesday matches.
 
Those matches always pair travel partners, including the SPU-Saint Martin's combination. Those teams then will face Montana State Billings later in the week, either on Thursday or Saturday, with a bye on the other day. The Falcons will play host to the Yellowjackets on Saturday.
 
When this situation comes up again next month, the Falcons will host Saint Martin's on Tuesday, Nov. 3, play at Billings on Thursday the 5th, and have a bye on Saturday the 7th.
 
The last time the Falcons played anyone on a Tuesday was Sept. 4, 2012 in a non-conference match at San Francisco State.
 
SO WHAT'S THE STORY ON TUESDAY?
-- This match begins the second half of SPU's 28-match season.
-- Over the years, the Falcons have had things mostly their way against Saint Martin's, winning 48 of the 53 matches between the teams.
-- Those 48 wins include a current streak of 26 in a row, which began with a four-game victory on Sept. 21, 2002, in Lacey.
-- The Falcons haven't played in Marcus Pavilion since the 2013 season. Last year's match was played at Capital High School in Lacey because the Class 4A and 3A state high school volleyball tournaments were being played at Saint Martin's.
-- Seattle Pacific won both matches in three games against the Saints last year, and have done so 10 of the last 11 times the teams have met.
-- The exception to that was in 2013 when Saint Martin's won Game 1 in Lacey, 25-18, before the Falcons claimed the last three.
-- SPU has had more attack opportunities than its opponent in 10 of the 14 matches this year. In fact, only twice has an opponent had more than the Falcons (Cal State Los Angeles on Sept. 5, and Hawaii Pacific on Sept. 12). In two matches, the total attacks were equal.
-- On the defensive side, Seattle Pacific has kept its opponent below .200 hitting six times, winning four of those matches.
-- Coach Chris Johnson is 20-0 against Saint Martin's, including 4-0 against Kara Peterson, now in her third year at the coaching helm.
 
SCOUTING THE SAINT MARTIN'S SAINTS: 2-11, 1-5 GNAC (tie 9^th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 48-5. Current series streak: SPU won 26. Last time: SPU 3, Saint Martin's 0 (25-16, 25-22, 25-19; Nov. 15, 2014 at Lacey). Saints on the Web.
Saints in a nutshell: Saint Martin's battled all the way back from a two-game deficit to force a deciding fifth game last Thursday at Alaska Fairbanks before falling short. That match came one week after the Saints rallied twice from a game down to beat Western Oregon in five for their lone GNAC win of the season. Senior 5-foot-8 outside hitter Julie Wabinga leads the Saint Martin's offense, as she has racked up 101 kills, an average of 2.53 per game. Senior 6-3 middle blocker Kyra Davidson has 74 kills, and a team-high 46 total blocks, with nine solos. Her average of 1.1 blocks per game ranks No. 8 in the conference. Rebecca Mitchell, a 5-9 sophomore outside hitter, averages 2.40 kills per game. Freshman libero Elizabeth Colon has helped keep the ball in play with her average of 4.44 digs per game.
 
FALCONS REPLAY
-- Ellie Britt, Shaun Crespi, and Hannah  Lautenbach all had seven kills, but unbeaten and No. 8-ranked Alaska Anchorage started quickly, then fended off a stepped-up defensive effort from Seattle Pacific in the final two games to post a three-game sweep last Thursday in Alaska, 25-13, 25-21, 26-24.
-- Alaska Fairbanks raced to big leads in the first two games on Saturday and went on to beat SPU, 25-13, 25-22, 21-25, 25-16.
 
PUT 'ER THERE, PARTNER
SPU and Saint Martin's are now travel partners when it comes to GNAC scheduling. That change was made effective this season when Concordia of Oregon joined the conference, expanding it to 11 schools.
 
Since the 2010 season, the Falcons have been paired up with Montana State Billings, facing only the Yellowjackets during those weeks on the calendar. Saint Martin's was linked up with Western Oregon.
 
Prior to 2010, Western Oregon had been Seattle Pacific's travel partner.
 
SHINING THE FIRST-HALF SPOTLIGHT
Last Saturday's match at Alaska Fairbanks brought Seattle Pacific to the midpoint of its 28-match schedule. Some highlights through the first 14 matches:
 
-- The 30^th anniversary of the program was recognized on Sept. 26 in Brougham Pavilion during the match against Western Oregon.
-- The Falcons hit a 2015 high of .410 (43 kills-11 errors-78 attacks) against Molloy College of New York in the season-opening match at the Cal State Los Angeles Invitational.
-- SPU put together back-to-back three-game sweeps in Brougham Pavilion on Sept. 24 and 26, first against Concordia, and then against Western Oregon.
-- The 200th home victory in program history went into the book on Sept. 24 against Concordia.
 

-- Freshman libero Symone Tran (Portland, Ore.) already has put six assist-dig double-doubles onto her ledger. She logged career highs in both (51 assists, 15 digs) in a five-game match at Simon Fraser on Sept. 17.
-- In that same Simon Fraser match, sophomore outside hitter Lexi Biondi (Albuquerque, N.M.) hammered a career-high 25 kills. That was nearly twice as many as her previous best of 13, set in 2013 at Western Washington. On the way to those 25 kills, Biondi attacked 72 times – again, nearly double her old high of 38, also in that 2013 match at Western.
-- Sophomore opposite / middle blocker Hannah Lautenbach (Portland, Ore.) also had a career night in Canada with 19 kills on 50 attacks. She also tied her career high with 20 digs.
 

-- The 500th career kill for senior outside hitter Ellie Britt (Orange, Calif.) came on Sept. 26 against Western Oregon, and gave SPU, already up two games, a 23-17 lead in Game 3. Moments later, Britt's 501st kill clinched the three-game sweep.
-- Senior libero Breanne Wiekamp (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) has dug her way into the nation's top 50. Entering this week, Wiekamp ranks No. 46 in Division II at an average of 5.23 per game. She is 55 digs away from the 1,000th of her career.
-- By playing in all 47 sets of the first half, Wiekamp continued on the road toward becoming just the second Falcon ever to be on the court for every possible set of her career.                                       
-- Tran and fellow freshman Shaun Crespi became regulars in the starting lineup. Ditto for Dani Johnson until an injury at Western Washington on Sept. 19 put her on the sidelines. Also becoming a regular, sometime off the bench, sometimes as a starter, has been defensive and serving specialist Amanda Ganete, as her 13 service aces put her just one behind Wiekamp for the team lead.     
 
DOUBLE-DOUBLE DELIGHTS
Symone Tran added another double-double to her collection last week, putting one into the book at Alaska Fairbanks. She now has five in her last seven matches and six for the season.

 

2015 double-doubles:
Hannah Lautenbach (2 season / 3 career):
11K-15D vs. Academy of Art, Sept. 11;
19K-20D at Simon Fraser, Sept. 17.
Symone Tran (6 season / 6 career):
20AST-11D vs. Azusa Pacific, Sept. 10;
25AST-11D vs. Hawaii Pacific, Sept. 12;
51AST-15D at Simon Fraser, Sept. 17;
32AST-10D vs. Concordia, Sept. 24;
37 AST-13D vs. Western Oregon,Sept. 26;
34 AST-10D at Alaska Fairbanks, Oct. 3.

 
UP NEXT
The Falcons will have Thursday off, then play host to Montana State Billings on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. in Brougham Pavilion. That will be the first of three straight home matches. Central Washington comes to town next Thursday, Oct. 15 at 7:00 p.m., and defending GNAC champion Northwest Nazarene is here on Saturday the 17th for a 1 p.m. match.

 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                       GNAC           Overall
Alaska Anchorage         6-0       14-0
Western Washington       6-0       12-2
Central Washington       5-1        9-4
Northwest Nazarene       4-2        7-7
Simon Fraser             3-3        7-7
Concordia                2-4       10-4
Seattle Pacific          2-4        4-10
Alaska Fairbanks         2-4        2-11
Western Oregon           1-5        4-11
Saint Martin's           1-5        2-10
Montana State Billings   1-5        2-11