THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Sept. 15            Seattle Pacific at Alaska Fairbanks, 8:00 p.m. PDT
                                                The Patty Center / Fairbanks, Alaska
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, Sept. 17             Seattle Pacific at Alaska Anchorage, 8:00 p.m. PDT
                                                Alaska Airlines Center / Anchorage, Alaska
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
 
        Weekly release, with complete updated stats (PDF)

SEATTLE – At least the Seattle Pacific Falcons got to come back home for a couple days of practice on their own volleyball court. But now, with eight road matches already behind them, they head back out this week.
 
The Falcons (4-4) will fly off to Alaska for the first two contests on the Great Northwest Athletic Conference schedule. SPU visits Alaska Fairbanks on Thursday, then heads down to take on nationally ranked Alaska Anchorage on Saturday.
 
First serve for both matches is at 8:00 p.m. Pacific time.
 
Seattle Pacific finished its preseason tournament schedule in dramatic – and successful – fashion on Saturday at the D2 West Region Volleyball Showcase in California. Facing triple-match point in Game 5 against Azusa Pacific, the Falcons rallied to pull out a 24-26, 25-22, 25-23, 12-25, 17-15 victory, giving them three wins in four matches.
 
That also left SPU with a 4-4 overall record, a two-win improvement from last year's 2-6 preseason record.
 
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 Webcats. The Webcasts are through Stretch Internet, the conference's official internet provider. The appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.
 
CRESPI AMONG BEST IN THE SHOW(CASE) - AND THE COUNTRY
Sophomore middle blocker Shaun Crespi was one of eight GNAC players named to the D2 West Region Showcase all-tournament team. The team included not just players from the Cal State Dominguez Hills pod, but from all six tournament venues.

 

Crespi (Camrillo, Calif.) was by far and away the best blocker in the tournament. She finished with 28 total blocks, including five solos. No one else had more than 21. Crespi compiled a career-high 11 total blocks (with two solos) in last Friday's five-gamer against Hawaii Hilo.
 
For the season, Crespi already has 46 total blocks (seven solo) in just eight matches. Her total is tied for No. 3 in NCAA Division II, and her average of 1.53 ranks No. 6 nationally. Her total is tied for No. 2 in the conference, trailing only the 47 of Alaska Anchorage's  Diana Fa'amausili, and her average is second among GNAC players.
 
Those 46 blocks are more than half of the 80 Crespi racked up (11 solo) in 26 matches as a freshman last season, an average of 0.91 per game.
 
GNAC COACHES TAB FALCONS FOR 7TH
Coaches from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference have voted SPU for a seventh-place finish in their preseason poll.
 
The Falcons received 53 points in the polling.
 
Western Washington, which advanced to the national semifinals last fall, is a unanimous pick to win the conference crown. With all 11 first-place votes, the Vikings tallied 121 points. Defending champion Alaska Anchorage was tabbed for second with 104 points, and Northwest Nazarene is picked third with 98.
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- Seattle Pacific is 8-7 all-time in GNAC openers. That includes 5-5 when those openers are on the road.
-- This is the second straight year the Falcons have opened out of town. Last year was in Burnaby, B.C., against Simon Fraser, where the Clan pulled out a five-game victory.
-- The last time the Falcons began conference play in Alaska was in 2012. They lost a four-gamer at Anchorage, but came back two nights later and swept Fairbanks.
-- The victory at UAF was part of a 12-match winning streak Seattle Pacific had put together against the Nanooks. But Fairbanks had the upper hand last fall, winning a four-gamer in Alaska and a five-gamer in Seattle.
-- With four away victories so far, the Falcons already have done twice as well as they did out of town last season, when they picked up just one neutral court win (against Molloy in a preseason tournament) and one true road win (at Saint Martin's).
-- SPU's most recent match against a nationally ranked team was last Nov. 19 at home against No. 16 Western Washington. The Vikings won in three.
-- The most recent victory against a team in the top 25 was Oct. 24, 2013, a 3-1 triumph at then-No. 8 WWU.
-- Seattle Pacific's most recent victory against Alaska Anchorage was in 3-1 in Alaska on Nov. 10, 2012.
-- Falcons coach Chris Johnson is 9-13 all-time against UAA. His teams are 18-4 against Fairbanks.
 
SCOUTING THE ALASKA FAIRBANKS NANOOKS: 1-6, 0-0 GNAC
All-time series: SPU leads, 36-11. Current series streak: UAF won 2. Last time: UAF 3, SPU 2 (18-25, 27-25, 21-25, 25-18, 15-13; Oct. 29, 2015 at Seattle). Nanooks on the Web.
Nanooks in a nutshell: Fairbanks won its season-opening match at Brigham Young-Hawaii, but has come up short in all six matches since then. Setting the pace on offense for the Nanooks is 5-foot-9 sophomore outside hitter Amberly Jeane, with 70 kills, an average of 2.59 per game. Close behind is 6-2 junior outside Angela Molesworth with 63 and a .206 hitting percentage. Also playing well across the front is 5-10 freshman middle blocker Kim Wong. She has 45 kills, hits a team-leading .296, and also is on top in the blocking department with 24 total (0.89 per game), including four solos. This is one of the tougher-serving teams, with 58 aces and three players in double-digits: 14 for Riley Podowicz, 13 for Maddie Davis, and 11 for Paola Oliver-Otero.
 
SCOUTING THE ALASKA ANCHORAGE SEAWOLVES: 10-1, 0-0 GNAC
All-time series: SPU leads, 28-23. Current series streak: UAA won 6. Last time: UAA 3, SPU 0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-17; Oct. 31, 2015 at Seattle). Seawolves on the Web.
Seawolves in a nutshell: One might have thought that losing a pair of All-GNAC first teamers – outside hitter Katelyn Zanders and opposite Julia Mackey, who together totaled 704 kills, 568 digs, 60 service aces, and 139 total blocks for a 27-3 team – could mean Anchorage is down a little bit. But the Seawolves seem as tough as ever. They won all four matches in their D2 West Region Showcase pod that featured the top two 2015 finishers from each of the three West conferences. Senior 6-foot middle blocker Erin Braun and sophomore 6-foot outside hitter Leah Swiss are near .300 hitting, at .293 and .290, respectively. Swiss ranks No. 3 in the GNAC at 3.67 kills per game and is No. 1 in points with 174.5 (147 kills, 19 service aces, 1 solo block, 15 block assists). Freshman Diana Fa'amausili, at just 5-11, has the most total blocks in the conference (47).
 
DOUBLE-DOUBLE DELIGHTS
Not only were the Falcons racking up more double-doubles last week, everyone – or so it seemed – was getting into the act.
 
SPU put six more double-doubles into the book, pushing the total to 11 for the season in eight matches. That's just six shy of the entire 2015 total of 17 in 28 matches.
 
Sophomore setter Symone Tran (Portland, Ore.) and freshman outside hitter Gabby Oddo (Alta Loma, Calif.) each had two more. Junior opposite Hannah Lautenbach (Portland, Ore.) logged her first of the year, and junior outside hitter Colleen Hannigan (Brentwood, Calif.) put up the first of her career.
 
Colleen Hannigan (1 season / 1 career)
16K-15D vs. Hawaii Hilo, Sept. 9.
 
Hannah Lautenbach (1 season / 5 career)
14K-19D vs. Hawaii Hilo, Sept. 9.
 
Gabby Oddo (5 season / 5 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.
 
Symone Tran (4 season / 17 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.
 
HITTING THE CENTURY MARK …
 

Gabby Oddo and Shaun Crespi hit the 100 mark in one significant stat category apiece last week in California – and it didn't take either one of the very long to get there.

Oddo put her 100th kill on the floor late in the fourth game of Saturday's five-game thriller against Azusa Pacific. She starts the week with 104 from just eight college matches.

Crespi recorded her 100th career block, this one a block assist, during the second game of the three-game sweep against Humboldt State on Sept. 8. It came in just the 31^st match of her career, and was one of her tournament-leading 128 blocks. She has 126 for her career.
 

… AND HITTING THE MILLENNIUM MARK
Symone Tran is long past the century mark for career assists. Heck, she had that many by the end of her fourth match as a freshman.

 

Now a sophomore, Tran now has passed the 1,000 assist mark. Her milestone 1,000th came near the end of last Thursday's match against Humboldt State when she set up a kill for Hannah Lautenbach. That was the second point of a match-clinching 5-0 run in the third game.
 
Tran wound up with 147 assists for the tournament and comes into this week with 1,112. Included in that total is a season high of 48 in last Friday's narrow five-game loss to Hawaii Hilo.

 
COACH CHRIS JOHNSON SAYS …
(On finishing the preseason at 4-and-4)
"I think you always want to be better. But with the young group and the way we are now and the way we are jelling together, you can't be too upset with it. I think we're going the right way. We have some good things happening."

 

(On what he's seeing on the court)
"We had another 13 blocks today (on Saturday vs. Azusa Pacific). Our defense is playing well. But we have some stuff to work on with offense. That's certainly not a secret. We're just not killing as many balls as we need to be."
 
(On his conversation with the team when SPU was down 11-5 in Game 5 against Azusa Pacific)
"I just tried to get them to believe in themselves and recognize that this can still happen and we still have these opportunities. We just wanted to get them to play with a little more aggression and a bolder mindset, and they took some of that to heart."
 
HOLY HANNIGAN – THAT WAS QUITE A WEEK
Colleen Hannigan is in her third year with the Falcons, but in her first year as a regular in the starting six. It has been a bit of a roller coaster, but she had some noteworthy performances in last week's D2 West Region Showcase.
 
The biggest of those was Friday's career-high double-double of 16 kills and 15 digs against Hawaii Hilo. She also tied her career best with four block assists.
 
In fact, Friday as a whole was a monster day for Hannigan. Facing host Cal State Dominguez Hills in the first match of the day, Hannigan delivered a career-best four service aces, set her initial career high of four block assists, and have five total blocks, also a single-match personal best. All of that went along with seven kills and eight digs.
 
For the week, Hannigan had 42 kills, 32 digs, five aces, and nine total blocks.
 
ANOTHER DEBUT – AND A TIMELY ONE AT THAT
Freshman libero Katie Mansfield just got to watch SPU's first seven matches of the season. But midway through the third game of Saturday's five-gamer against Azusa Pacific, Mansfield (Lynnwood, Wash. / Lynnwood HS) came on as a serving specialist.

 

She stayed in that role for the rest of the day and factored into the Game 5 rally when SPU was fighting off four match points. Mansfield came in when the Falcons were down 14-12 and sent a service ace cross the net to make it 14-13. She served again, and this time, the Cougars had an attack error to tie it at 14-14.
 
APU got sideout with a kill on the next one for a 15-14 lead. That brought middle blocker Shaun Crespi back onto the court in place of Mansfield, as SPU went on to score the final three points of the match.
 
NATIONALLY SPEAKING
SPU ranks No. 8 among NCAA Division II schools in blocks per set at 2.57. Much of that has to do with Shaun Crespi's average of 1.53 per set, No. 6 on the national list.
 
The Falcons also are respectable No. 65 in hitting defense, allowing opponents a percentage of just .151.

Click on this link for a look at where SPU ranks on national statistical lists. Click on this link to see how the Falcons and other GNAC schools stack up nationally.
 
AROUND THE WEST
The California Collegiate Athletic Association and the Pacific West will join the GNAC in beginning their conference schedules this week.
 
Through two weeks of preseason tournament play, Northwest Nazarene (7-0) and Saint Martin's (4-0) are both perfect in the GNAC, with Alaska Anchorage at 10-1. (The Seawolves played three preseason tourneys.)
 
Nobody is unbeaten in the CCAA. In fact, every team has at least two defeats in preseason. The top records belong to Cal State San Bernardino and Cal State San Marcos, both 6-2. Cal State Monterey Bay is 5-2.
 
Concordia Irvine from the Pac West went a perfect 9-0 in preseason. Chaminade has the next-best record at 6-3.

AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for the latest news, notes, results, and stats from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
 
UP NEXT
Home at last. The Falcons get to play their first matches of the season in Brougham Pavilion next week. Western Oregon comes to town on Thursday, Sept. 22, at 7:30 p.m. Concordia of Portland visits on Saturday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. Brougham and the campus in general will be buzzing throughout that weekend as freshmen and returning students arrive in preparation for the Monday, Sept. 26 start of classes.
 
  
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                Conference          Overall
Northwest Nazarene           0-0                            7-0
Saint Martin's                        0-0                            4-0
Alaska Anchorage               0-0                          10-1
Simon Fraser                        0-0                            7-1
Central Washington             0-0                            4-4
Concordia                              0-0                            4-4
Seattle Pacific                       0-0                            4-4
Western Washington           0-0                            4-4
Western Oregon                   0-0                            2-5
Alaska Fairbanks                 0-0                            1-6
Montana State Billings        0-0                            1-8