THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Sept. 17      Seattle Pacific at Simon Fraser, 7:00 p.m.
                                         West Gym / Burnaby, B.C.
                                         Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, Sept. 19       Seattle Pacific at Western Washington, 7:00 p.m.
                                         Whatcom CC Pavilion / Bellingham, Wash.
                                         Live Webcast        Live stats
 
 
        Weekly release, with complete updated stats (PDF)
 
SEATTLE – Sure, all of the matches count. But the next 20 matches on the volleyball calendar will count even more for the Seattle Pacific Falcons.
 
That's because those 20 matches make up SPU's Great Northwest Athletic Conference schedule.
 
After one preseason tournament in Los Angeles on Labor Day weekend, and last week's GNAC-Pacific West Crossover gathering in Brougham Pavilion, the Falcons hit the road for the start of conference play. First up is a visit to Canada on Thursday for a match against Simon Fraser in Burnaby, B.C. Then, it's off to Bellingham on Saturday to tangle with arch-rival Western Washington.
 
The first serve for both is set for 7:00 p.m.
 
SPU went 2-6 in the preseason, sweeping Molloy College in L.A., and scoring a four-game victory against Academy of Art in Seattle.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Free Webcasts and free live stats will be available from all GNAC matches, home and away. The appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.
 
VISITING A NEW VENUE
When the Falcons go to Bellingham on Saturday, they won't be getting off Interstate 5 at the exit for Western Washington. Instead, they'll travel a few miles farther north to Whatcom Community College.
 
The Pavilion on that school's campus will be the primary home for the Viking volleyball and basketball teams for the next two years while Western's Carver Gymnasium undergoes a renovation. Seating capacity at Whatcom is much lower, topping out at about 750, so SPU fans planning to make the trip are advised to arrive early. (Click on this link for driving directions as if departing from the Seattle Pacific campus.)
 
Because it's not their gym, the Vikings will not be using their blue Sport Court playing surface on which they have been so successful in Carver.
 
This is the second straight season SPU has played a conference opponent in a different gym. Last year's match at Saint Martin's was played at nearby Capital High School in Lacey because Marcus Pavilion was booked for the state high school volleyball tournament.
 
SPU PICKED 6^TH IN GNAC
Conference coaches voted the Falcons for a sixth-place finish in the preseason poll that was released on Aug. 24.
 
Seattle Pacific, coming off a 12-14 overall record and 6-12 GNAC mark in 2014, received 52 points in the voting.
 
Alaska Anchorage is the preseason favorite, albeit not by an overwhelming margin. The Seawolves were one of four teams to receive first-place votes, picking up five and a total of 92 points. Close behind is defending champion Northwest Nazarene with three firsts and 85 points.
 
Central Washington and Western Washington tied for third. Each picked up one first-place vote and 84 points. The other school finishing ahead of the Falcons in the poll was Simon Fraser with 58 points.
 
CELEBRATING 30 YEARS
SPU has begun its 30th season of volleyball, and will honor that achievement next Saturday, Sept. 26, when Western Oregon visits Brougham Pavilion. The first serve is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.
 
The program began in 1986 under the direction of coach JoAnn Atwell-Scrivner, who is still teaching at SPU in the Health & Human Performance department. She guided the team through its first 14 seasons, then turned the reins over to former Falcons player Kellie Radloff (nee Ryan). Current coach Chris Johnson took over in 2005, and now is starting his 11th year at the helm.
 
Through those now-almost three decades, the Falcons have built an overall record of 519-378 (.579 winning percentage). They have six conference (or division) championships, seven appearances in the NCAA Tournament, and have produced five All-Americans.





SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- The Falcons are 8-6 all-time in GNAC openers. That includes a 5-4 record when the opener is on the road.
-- Heading into the week, the Falcons are looking to ramp up their offense, as they average 10.23 kills per game.
-- Both of the 2014 matches agains Simon Fraser were won by the Clan in five games. In each case, it was Seattle Pacific coming from 1-0 and 2-1 down to force the deciding fifth game.
-- Prior to that, the Clan had not defeated the Falcons since joining the GNAC in 2010.
-- SPU and Simon Fraser had ample opportunities to scout each other last week during the four matches that each team played in Brougham Pavilion during the GNAC-Pacific West Crossover Tournament.
-- The Falcons got a game off Western Washington in both matches last season, including Game 1 at Bellingham.
-- Saturday's match against the Vikings will be SPU's first against a nationally ranked team this season. Previous opponents Dixie State, Cal State Los Angeles, Cal Baptist, and Hawaii Pacific all were receiving votes in the national poll at the time they played the Falcons, but not enough to crack the top 25.
-- Coach Chris Johnson is 8-2 against Simon Fraser, including 4-2 against head coach Gina Schmidt.
-- Johnson has a 9-12 record against Western Washington and coach Diane Flick.
 
SCOUTING THE SIMON FRASER CLAN: 4-4, 0-0 GNAC
All-time series: SPU leads 26-11. Current series streak: SFU won 2. Last time: SFU 3, SPU 2 (25-17, 19-25, 25-17, 24-26, 16-14; Oct. 23, 2014 at Burnaby, B.C.). Clan on the Web.
Clan in a nutshell: In splitting its eight preseason matches – four in Hawaii on Labor Day weekend, and four in Seattle last week – Simon Fraser showed it can contend with anyone. The Clan actually started off 0-2, but those were five-game losses to BYU-Hawaii and Chaminade. At the time, BYUH was ranked No. 11, and both are still receiving national votes. The May sisters – 5-foot-9 junior outside hitter Devon and 6-3 freshman middle blocker Tessa – play big roles for the Clan. Devon leads the team with 97 kills (No. 6 in the GNAC) and 12 service aces. Tessa has 75 kills, hits a team-high .304, and had 40 blocks (No. 5 in the GNAC), including eight solos. Sophomore middle blocker Madison Power also can get it done defensively with 31 blocks, and has 56 kills, as well. Junior libero Alison McKay's 177 digs (5.36 per game) rank No. 2 in the conference.
 
SCOUTING THE WESTERN WASHINGTON VIKINGS: 6-2, 0-0 GNAC
All-time series: WWU leads, 40-26. Current series streak: WWU won 2. Last time: WWU 3, SPU 1 (26-28, 25-12, 25-13, 25-17; Oct. 25, 2015 at Bellingham). Vikings on the Web.
Vikings in a nutshell: Coach Diane Flick knew her team had a rugged preseason schedule, with five nationally ranked teams in eight matches. The Vikings were swept in the first two of those in Florida, falling to Wheeling Jesuit (then No. 9), and Tampa (then No. 1). But they haven't lost since, beating then-No. 4 (and now No. 1) Minnesota Duluth in five, and last weekend defeating No. 21 BYU-Hawaii in four and No. 20 Point Loma Nazarene in three. Western has three players with a propensity for putting the ball on the floor. Abby Phelps, a 5-foot-10 redshirt freshman hitter, sets the pace with 86 kills and hits .236. Rachel Roeder, a 6-1 senior outside hitter, has 77 kills and a .252 hitting percentage, and 5-10 sophomore hitter Jolee Buckner has 70 kills with a .227 hitting percentage. Another redshirt freshman, 6-3 Kayleigh Harper, has recorded 36 total blocks, with five solos.
 
FALCONS REPLAY
-- SPU had just two leads all day and was swept by Azusa Pacific in its first match of the GNAC-Pacific West Crossover Volleyball Tournament, 25-18, 25-16, 25-18.
-- Hannah Lautenbach recorded her first double-double of the season, and Shaun Crespi hit a career-high .350 as SPU came back from losing the first game to beat Academy of Art in the Crossover, 20-25, 25-9, 25-22, 25-23.
-- Ellie Britt slammed nine kills, Lautenbach put down eight more, and the Falcons gave California Baptist its toughest match of the tournament before the Lancers finally prevailed, 25-23, 25-21, 25-15.
-- Freshman setter Symone Tran posted her second career double-double, and fellow freshman Dani Johnson led the way with eight kills, but SPU fell short against Hawaii Pacific in the final match of the tournament, 25-20, 25-13, 25-21.
 
COACH CHRIS JOHNSON SAYS …
On tweaking the lineup
"We came into the weekend with a different lineup than we had played yet this year. We had Hannah (Lautenbach) in a couple different places. It was good to see that they were able to adapt to those things and still play at a very high level."

 

On some good things he saw in preseason tournaments
"Our passing has been pretty darn good – I've been really happy with it. Our passing against Cal Baptist and the level of being able to compete, and the want-to, and the desire in that match was really good."
 
On things to improve going forward
"We have to solidify our block, and we've got to get some kills. … It's just doing things the right way and doing them correctly. There definitely has been improvement from week to week, day to day, and even within a match. That's always good to see."
 
DOUBLE-DOUBLE DELIGHTS
After going without a double-double at the season-opening Cal State Los Angeles Invitational, the Falcons put three of them into the books last week: two by freshman setter Symone Tran, and one by sophomore hitter / blocker Hannah Lautenbach.
 
2015 double-doubles:
Hannah Lautenbach (1 season / 2 career): 11K-15D vs. Academy of Art, Sept. 11.
Symone Tran (2 season / 2 career): 20AST-11D vs. Azusa Pacific, Sept. 10; 25AST-11D vs. Hawaii Pacific, Sept. 12.

 

FROM REDSHIRT TO REGULAR
Coming into the season, freshman libero Amanda Ganete (Hillsboro, Ore.) was listed on the roster as a redshirt. But in the days leading up to the regular-season opener on Sept. 4 in Los Angeles, it was decided that she would play this year.
               
So far, it's working out very well. Just two weeks into the season, Ganete has developed into one of Seattle Pacific's best servers. She has delivered nine aces, the second-highest total on the team, and has just two errors in 66 attempts, putting a team-high 97 percent of her serves into play.
 
Not only is Ganete playing, she has been on the court for all 26 sets, making her one of the five Falcons with that distinction.
 
SERVING IT UP MORE ACCURATELY
In fact, the SPU team as a whole has done a more accurate job on the service than it was doing after eight matches last fall.
 
The Falcons have just 50 service errors, way down from the 78 it had through eight matches in 2014. Or, looking at it another way, of the 532 service opportunities so far, 482 of them – or 90.6 percent – have been put into play. That's a two percentage-point improvement from last year's first eight matches, when the Falcons had an 88.5 percent success rate.
 
Of those 532 serves, 41 have dropped in for service aces. In addition to Amanda Ganete's nine, senior libero Breanne Wiekamp has delivered 10. Seattle Pacific has six players who serve regularly, and all of them have put in at least three aces.
 
CROSSOVER TOURNAMENT EXPANDS
The crossover tournament that the GNAC and Pacific West Conference have played for the past two years will expand next year to include the California Collegiate Athletic Association. That announcement was made by the GNAC on Tuesday morning.
 
Beginning in 2016, the top 10 teams (based on the previous season's standings) from each of the three conferences will take part in the tourney. The CCAA will be the host conference next fall, followed by the GNAC in 2017 and the Pac West in 2018.
 
The tournament will be spread out among five sites within the host conference. Each team will play four matches.

AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for a look at news, notes, results,and statistics from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons will be back in Brougham next week for their first two home GNAC matches. Conference newcomer Concordia comes up from Portland next Thursday, Sept. 24, with the first serve set for 7:30 p.m. The Cavaliers are off to a hot start, having won all eight of their preseason matches. Western Oregon is in town on Saturday the 26th with a 2:00 p.m. start time.
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                GNAC    Overall
Central Washington               1-0           5-3
Alaska Anchorage                  0-0           8-0
Concordia (Ore.)                     0-0           8-0
Western Washington              0-0           6-2
Simon Fraser                           0-0           4-4
Western Oregon                     0-0           3-6
Seattle Pacific                         0-0           2-6
Saint Martin's                           0-0           1-5
Montana State Billings          0-0           1-7
Alaska Fairbanks                   0-0           0-7
Northwest Nazarene             0-1           3-6