Box score, play-by-play (HTML)
 
SEATTLE – It was all going Seattle Pacific's way on Saturday night … until it wasn't.
 
Hannah Lautenbach tied her career high with 20 kills and Symone Tran logged her 40th career double-double, but Alaska Fairbanks stormed back after losing the first two games to beat the Falcons in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball match.
 
Scores in Brougham Pavilion were 22-25, 28-30, 25-17, 25-15, 16-14.
 
The Falcons (10-10, 5-7 GNAC) have pulled off that same feat three times themselves this season, but this was the first time a team had come back on them from two games down.
 
"I kind of told the team that this is the type of match that will define who we are," head coach Abbie Wright said. "How we respond will define who we are. This just showed us that you can start well, but can you capitalize when you've put yourself into a good position?
 
"We worked to put ourselves in a good spot. Fairbanks did a good job of coming back – they stayed resilient."
 
The Nanooks (10-10, 3-8 GNAC) built big leads on the way to winning Games 3 and 4, and had a 10-6 advantage in Game 5.
 
That's when SPU found a spark to get back into it. The Falcons went on a 6-1 scoring run, with back-to-back kills by Lautenbach, three Fairbanks errors, and finally a kill by freshman outside hitter Olivia Turner producing a 12-11 lead.
 
Seattle Pacific then went up 13-12 on a kill by junior middle blocker Shaun Crespi. The Nanooks responded with two straight to earn a match point at 14-13. A Fairbanks ball handling error knotted it at 14-14 before back-to-back kills by redshirt freshman Markie Miller – clinched the match.

 

Senior middle blocker / opposite Lautenbach had 19 digs to go along her 20 kills, and nine blocks, leaving her just one block away from a triple-double. Sophomore outside hitter Gabby Oddo added 15 kills and 16 digs. Junior setter Tran had 51 assists and 14 digs.
 
SPU came out with a strong first game, hitting .342 with 19 kills on its 25 points. A five-point run, the last four with Tran serving, opened an 8-4 lead. A later five-point run, the last four with Oddo on the serve, made it 23-14.
 
The second game featured 15 ties and eight lead changes. Fairbanks had four games points, at 24-23, 25-24, 26-25, and 28-27, but could not convert. SPU got the last three points, all on UAF errors, to take a two-game lead into the break.
 
The Nanooks sprinted to an 11-4 lead in the third game and never let Seattle Pacific get closer than two. They went up 10-4 in Game 4, and gradually stretched it out from there.
 
"They were just taking bigger risks than us and moving the ball around a little better," Wright said. "We broke down in certain areas, and that didn't allow us to be unpredictable. We fell into a bad rhythm and it was hard to get ourselves back out."
 
BY THE NUMBERS
--Lautenbach's other career 20-kill match came last Sept. 29 at Northwest Nazarene.
-- Her double-double was her 10th of the season and 21st of her career. Oddo's was her second in a row, fifth of the year and 17th career.
--Lautenbach tied her career highs for block assists (eight) and total blocks (nine).
--Freshman middle Gabi Stegemoller set a career blocking high for the second straight match. She had eight on Saturday after recording six in Thursday's five-game loss to Alaska Fairbanks.
-- SPU hit .155 for the night (65 kills-33 errors-207 attacks). UAF, the third-best hitting team in the GNAC, wound up at .231, with two games in the .200s and two in the .300s.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons have a split week next week. They're on the road at Saint Martin's on Tuesday night, then are home next Saturday against Montana State Billings. Both matches start at 7:00 p.m.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Saturday, Oct. 21, 2017
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
Alaska Fairbanks 3, Seattle Pacific 2
 
Game scores – 22-25, 28-30, 25-17, 25-15, 16-14.
 
Service aces – UAF 9 (Rachel Nichols 3), SPU 2 (2 players with 1).
Kills – UAF 62 (Maddie Davis 15), SPU 65 (Hannah Lautenbach 20, Gabby Oddo 15, Olivia Turner 13).
Assists – UAF 58 (Nichols 47), SPU 60 (Symone Tran 51).
Digs – UAF 101 (Jenna Hickel 27), SPU 82 (Lautenbach 19).
Block assists / solo – UAF 10 / 2 solo (Davis 2 / 2 solo), SPU 22 / 3 solo (Lautenbach 8 / 1 solo, Gabi Stegemoller 8 / 0 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – UAF 62-22-173--.231 (Riley Podowicz 7-0-17--.412), SPU 65-33-207--.155 (Lautenbach 20-4-54--.296).
Attendance – 113.
 
Records – Seattle Pacific 10-10, 5-7 GNAC.  Alaska Fairbanks 10-10, 3-8 GNAC.
 
 
Next match
Seattle Pacific at Saint Martin's
Tuesday, Oct. 24    7:00 p.m.
Marcus Pavilion / Lacey, Wash.