THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Oct. 27               Central Washington at Seattle Pacific, 7:00 p.m.
                                                Brougham Pavilion (2,650) / Seattle, Wash.
                                                Live Webcast       Live stats
 
Saturday, Oct. 29                Northwest Nazarene at Seattle Pacific, 7:00 p.m.
                                                Brougham Pavilion (2,650) / Seattle, Wash.
                                                Live Webcast       Live stats
 
 
        Weekly release, with complete updated stats (PDF)
 
SEATTLE – Back on their home court, the Seattle Pacific Falcons would love nothing more than to even the score.
 
As they continue with the second half of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball schedule, the Falcons will welcome Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene to Brougham Pavilion this week. The Wildcats come to town on Thursday, followed by the Crusaders on Saturday.
 
First serve for both matches is at 7:00 p.m.
 
SPU took both teams to a fifth game in their respective house during the first go-round through the GNAC. But in those decisive games, Central prevailed 15-10 in Ellensburg, and NNU had the upper hand in Nampa, 15-6.
 
The Falcons came up short on the road last week at Concordia and Western Oregon. So, Brougham will be a welcome sight, where they have won four out of six. That includes a string of three in a row earlier this month.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Fans can keep up with this week's matches and with every match throughout the GNAC season with live stats and free live Webcasts. The Webcasts are through Stretch Internet, the conference's official internet provider. The appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.
 
TICKET TALK
The ticket windows at Brougham Pavilion will open one hour prior to every match. All seats are general admission. Prices are $6 for adults, and $3 for youths, students, and senior citizens. SPU students with current ID are admitted free.
 
FALCON THURSDAYS
Fans are encouraged to wear SPU gear to all games, but especially on Falcon Thursdays. Every Thursday throughout the academic year, students, faculty and staff on campus will be showing their maroon colors and wearing SPU apparel to celebrate Falcon Thursdays.

 

A TWOSOME FOR 200
Shaun Crespi and Hannah Lautenbach didn't reach the milestone at the same time. But they did reach it on the same night.
 
Sophomore middle blocker Crespi and junior opposite Lautenbach both recorded their 200th career block in last Saturday's match at Western Oregon.
 
Lautenbach (Portland, Ore.) came into the match with 199, and collected No. 200 on a combined block with Crespi early in Game 2. Lautenbach went on to get one more before the end of the night, and starts this week with 201.
 
Crespi (Camarillo, Calif.) had 196 career blocks when she stepped onto the court. That aforementioned combo with Lautenbach put her at 198, Crespi's 200th came in the third game, as she and freshman Mallie Donohoe teamed up for one. Crespi had one more in the match, and, like Lautenbach, starts with week with 201.
 
SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- The Falcons will be trying to get back onto the 'W' side of the ledger against both teams. Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene both have won the last seven.
-- Of those seven matches, three against Central and two against NNU have gone to the five-game limit.
-- Such long matches between the Falcons and Crusaders aren't unusual. The contest on Sept. 29 was the 33rd all-time between the schools, and fully a third of those – 11 – went all the way to five.
-- In the GNAC statistics, Seattle Pacific and Central Washington are right next to each other in four different categories: opponent's hitting percentage (SPU 4th at .161, CWU 5th at .178), aces per game (CWU 6th at 1.30, SPU 7th at 1.28), digs per game (SPU 6th at 17.79, CWU 7th at 17.12), and blocks per game (CWU 1st at 3.02, SPU 2nd at 2.54).
-- As was the case on Oct. 1, Central and SPU will take opposite sides of the court as two of the best blocking teams in the country. Matter of fact, the Wildcats are the best, at 3.02 per game. The Falcons are No. 4 nationally at 2.54.
-- A win against either team would mark the first time since 2012 that Seattle Pacific would have dropped a five-gamer in the first half of GNAC play, only to come back and beat that same team in the second half. It actually happened twice that year: against Central (a 3-2 loss in Seattle, a 3-1 win in Ellensburg) and Alaska Anchorage (a 3-2 loss in Seattle, a 3-1 win in Alaska).
-- Senior outside hitter Lexi Biondi had a season-high 18 kills last time against Central.
-- Coach Chris Johnson's teams are 10-13 all-time against Central and 12-11 against Northwest Nazarene. All of the Central matches have been against coach Mario Andaya. The last seven vs. NNU have been against coach Doug English.
 




SCOUTING THE CENTRAL WASH. WILDCATS: 12-8, 8-4 GNAC (tie 3rd)
All-time series: CWU leads, 37-34. Current series streak: CWU won 7. Last time: CWU 3, SPU 2 (25-21, 21-25, 25-17, 20-25, 15-10; Oct. 1 at Ellensburg). Wildcats on the Web. Wildcats in a nutshell: Ever since getting past SPU in five on Oct. 1, Central has been in a lose-win-lose-win-lose-win mode, usually either sweeping in three, or getting swept. Among the more impressive victories was a three-gamer at Simon Fraser on Oct. 8, which was 13-2 at the time. Several Wildcats are capable of racking up kills on any particular night. Kiah Jones, a 5-foot-10 senior outside hitter, leads with 192 (2.63 per game), 6-0 sophomore outside Madison Weg has 182, and 5-10 sophomore middle blocker Shelby Mauritson 162. Ironically, none of them went for double-digits in the earlier match against SPU – and it was 5-9 senior outside Jordan Deming who led with nine. CWU has two players approaching 100 blocks: 6-3 junior middle Sabrina Wheelhouse with 99 (1.68 per game), and 5-11 senior middle Erin Little with 91 (1.25). The team's 3.02 per-game blocking average is No. 1 in D2 and would rank No. 6 in D1 – just ahead of the University of Washington's 2.97. Central got 20 points on blocks last time against SPU, with Wheelhouse and Little totaling 10 apiece.
 
SCOUTING THE NW NAZARENE CRUSADERS: 14-5, 7-5 GNAC (6th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 20-13. Current series streak: NNU won 7. Last time: NNU 3, SPU 2 (25-18, 27-25, 25-21, 25-21, 15-6; Sept. 29 at Nampa). Crusaders on the Web.
Crusaders in a nutshell: After three losses in four matches – to top-tier teams Simon Fraser, Western Washington and Alaska Anchorage – NNU got back into a groove last week, with road sweeps at Central Washington and Montana State Billings. The Crusaders have the GNAC's second-best hitter in 6-2 junior middle blocker Madi Farrell (.325).. Farrell's 214 kills (3.10 per-game average) ranks No. 9. Farrell is also big on the block, totaling 87 and averaging 1.26 per game, No. 3 in the conference. She hit .371 with 17 kills in the first SPU match. Another force on offense is 5-10 junior outside hitter Kendra Bodine. She starts the week averaging just shy of four kills per game (3.99; with 275 total), best mark in the GNAC, and hits .237. Mari Thomas, a 5-10 junior outside, slammed 19 kills to the Falcons' side of the net in the Sept. 29 contest. Hailey Cook, a junior, is the GNAC's leading setter at 11.83 assists per game.
 
DOUBLE-DOUBLE DELIGHTS
SPU had just one double-double in last week's matches, but it's no surprise who got it. That would be sophomore setter Symone Tran (Portland, Ore.), with her 40 assists and 14 digs in the four-game match at Western Oregon last Saturday night.
 
Tran now has an even dozen for the season and 25 for her career. She has double-doubled in eight of her last nine matches.
 
For the season, the Falcons now have put 32 double-doubles into the book.
 
Colleen Hannigan (1 season / 1 career)
16K-15D vs. Hawaii Hilo, Sept. 9.
 
Hannah Lautenbach (6 season / 10 career)
14K-19D vs. Hawaii Hilo, Sept. 9;
10K-10D vs. Western Oregon, Sept. 22;
13K-14D vs. Concordia-Oregon, Sept. 24;
20K-21D at Northwest Nazarene, Sept. 29;
10K-13D vs. Montana State Billings, Oct. 6;
13K-20D vs. Western Washington, Oct. 15.
 
Gabby Oddo (13 season / 13 career)
14K-11D at Concordia Irvine, Sept. 2;
10K-10D vs. Colo. Christian, Sept. 3;
16K-21D vs. UC San Diego, Sept. 3;
14K-13D vs. Humboldt State, Sept. 8;
19K-13D vs. Azusa Pacific, Sept. 10;
19K-10D at Alaska Fairbanks, Sept. 15;
10K-12D at Alaska Anchorage, Sept. 17;
12K-18D vs. Concordia-Oregon, Sept. 24;
16K-12D at Northwest Nazarene, Sept. 29;
16K-10D at Central Washington, Oct. 1;
16K-10D vs. Montana State Billings, Oct. 6;
14K-17D vs. Simon Fraser, Oct. 13;
14K-32D vs. Western Washington, Oct. 15.
 
Symone Tran (12 season / 25 career)
32 AST-21D at Concordia Irvine, Sept. 2;
43 AST-13D vs. UC San Diego, Sept. 3;
48 AST-16D vs. Hawaii Hilo, Sept. 9.
36 AST-24D vs. Azusa Pacific, Sept. 10;
42 AST-13D vs. Concordia-Oregon, Sept. 24;
55 AST-13D at Northwest Nazarene, Sept. 29;
55 AST-18D at Central Washington, Oct. 1;
39 AST-15D vs. Saint Martin's, Oct.4;
48 AST-13D vs. Montana State Billings, Oct. 6;
31 AST-11D vs. Simon Fraser, Oct. 13;
58 AST-35D vs. Western Washington, Oct. 15;
40 AST-14D at Western Oregon, Oct. 22
 
TOUGH END TO 2016 FOR ODDO
Gabby Oddo's fabulous freshman year is finished. The talented outside hitter suffered a season-ending injury midway through the fifth game against Western Washington in Brougham Pavilion on Oct. 15.

 

Prior to going down, Oddo (Alta Loma, Calif.) had been SPU's leader on offense with 242 kills in 71 sets, an average of 3.41 per set that still ranks No. 5 in the GNAC. She was within range of breaking the Falcon freshman record of 352, set by Leilani Kamahoahoa in 1998. Oddo's total will occupy the No. 4 spot on that list.
 
She also was a big contributor defensively with 237 digs, along with 21 total blocks. In her first 18 college matches, Oddo had 13 kill-dig double-doubles. The last of those was 14 kills and a career-high 32 digs in that WWU match.
 
A THOUSAND HERE, TWO THOUSAND THERE
In the eight remaining matches, Symone Tran has a chance to reach a couple of significant marks in terms of assists.
 
The sophomore comes into this week with 780 for the season, and is averaging exactly 10 assists per set. With a minimum of 24 sets still to play, she would need to average about 9.2 assists per set to reach 1,000. The last Falcon setter to do that was Shelby Swanson, and she got there three years in a row: 1,122 as a sophomore in 2010; then 1,147 as a junior, and 1,105 as a senior.
 
With the 832 assists she had last year – a total she almost certainly will pass by the end of this week – Tran has 1,612 for her career. Reaching 2,000 by the end of the season will be challenging, but not necessarily out of the question. Again, assuming SPU played just the minimum 24 sets, it would take an average of 16.2 per set to reach 2K.
 
NATIONALLY SPEAKING
Here's how the Falcons rank in NCAA Division II:
 
TEAM
4th blocks per game 2.54 (2nd GNAC).
7th attacks per game 39.73 (1st GNAC).
16th total blocks 198.0 (2nd GNAC).
38th digs per game 17.79 (6th GNAC).
70^th opponent hitting .161 (4th GNAC)
 
INDIVIDUAL
Shaun Crespi 4th blocks per game 1.55 (2nd GNAC).
Shaun Crespi 4th total blocks 121 (1st GNAC).
Amanda Ganete 74th digs per game 479 (5th GNAC).
Amanda Ganete 88th total digs 374 (5th GNAC)
Gabby Oddo 25th attacks per game 11.49 (2nd GNAC).
Symone Tran 63rd assists per game 10.00 (5th GNAC)
Symone Tran 69th total assists 780 (4th GNAC).
 
Click in this link to see where the Falcons rank nationally. Click on this link to how other GNAC teams and players stack up in D2.
 
AROUND THE WEST
Alaska Anchorage is still in control of the GNAC, although it's a bit closer than it was a week ago. The Seawolves saw their 21-match winning streak come to an end last Saturday night in Anchorage when Western Washington pulled out an epic five-game victory. The fifth went to 20-18, as Western finally converted on its fourth try at match point. Prior to that, UAA had two opportunities at match point. Anchorage (21-2, 11-1 GNAC) still has a one-match lead on WWU (14-6, 10-2 GNAC), but is at least three matches clear of everyone else.

Chico State (16-5, 10-2 in the North Division), Cal State San Bernardino (15-4, 9-2 in the South Division) and Cal State Los Angeles (14-7, 10-3 in the South) are the leading California Collegiate Athletic Association teams this week. The only time any of those three cross paths before tournament play starts is Chico at Cal State L.A. in the regular-season finale on Nov. 12.
 
The Pacific West is still very tight at the top. Cal Baptist (15-4, 10-1 conference) is ahead of Concordia Irvine (20-2, 11-2) on percentage points. Within striking distance are Hawaii Pacific (14-7, 10-2) and Dominican (14-7, 10-3). Cal Baptist plays at Hawaii Pacific on Saturday after visiting Chaminade on Thursday – the same Chaminade team that stunned Alaska Anchorage in a three-game sweep on Aug. 26, after which the Seawolves started their 21-match win streak.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons head into the final month of the season with a string of four road matches. They'll play Saint Martin's next Tuesday, Nov. 1, at Marcus Pavilion in Lacey, looking to polish off a season sweep of the Saints. First serve is at 7:00 p.m. SPU will chase after another season sweep when it travels to Montana State Billings on Saturday, Nov. 5, with a 6:00 p.m. PDT start time.
 
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                Conference          Overall
Alaska Anchorage               11-1                        21-2
Western Washington           10-2                        14-6
Simon Fraser                          8-4                        15-5
Central Washington               8-4                        12-8
Concordia                                8-4                        12-8
Northwest Nazarene             7-5                        14-5
Western Oregon                     5-7                          8-11
Seattle Pacific                         4-8                          8-12
Saint Martin's                          2-10                        6-10
Montana State Billings          2-10                       3-18
Alaska Fairbanks                   1-11                        2-17