THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Sept. 21              Seattle Pacific at Alaska Fairbanks, 8:00 p.m. PDT
                                                The Patty Center / Fairbanks, Alaska
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, Sept. 23               Seattle Pacific at Alaska Anchorage, 8:00 p.m. PDT
                                                Alaska Airlines Center / Anchorage, Alaska
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
 
         Weekly release, with updated stats (PDF)
 
SEATTLE – For the Seattle Pacific Falcons, their first Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball road trip of the season isn't any ordinary road trip.
 
This one goes all the way to Alaska.
 
The Falcons fly off to the Final Frontier this week, stopping first in Fairbanks, and then in Anchorage for the second week of GNAC play. SPU and the Nanooks serve it up on Thursday before a battle against the national No. 20-ranked Seawolves on Saturday.
 
Both matches begin at 8:00 p.m. Pacific time.
 
SPU's record is all level at 1-1 in conference play (6-4 overall) after a homecourt split of last week's first two contests of 2017. The Falcons bounced back from Thursday's four-game loss to Concordia-Portland to sweep Western Oregon on Saturday, coming from five points behind late in the third game.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Live stats and free live Webcasts will be available from all GNAC matches, home and away. The Webcasts are through Stretch Internet, the GNAC's online provider. Appropriate links are available at the top of this story.
 
LOTS OF HITS, NO ERRORS
Front row players know that sometimes, even their best effort on the attack is going to wind up just long, barely wide, or get blocked.
 
But then, there are nights when it all goes right – and the Falcons have enjoyed a handful of those this season.

 

The latest was on Saturday when Gabby Oddo (Alta Loma, Calif.) swung 26 times and put 10 on the floor, none out of bounds, and none into the block in a three-game sweep of Western Oregon. It resulted in a career-high .385 hitting percentage for the sophomore outside.
 
Senior middle blocker / opposite Hannah Lautenbach (Portland, Ore.) had a day like that on Sept. 8 in a five-game win against Fresno Pacific, with nine kills and no errors on 33 attacks for a .273 percentage.
 
Junior setter Symone Tran (Portland, Ore.), who is very adept at dumping the ball over to catch the defense off guard, has had error-free matches of three kills on six attacks, two kills on six, and two kills on four. Freshman opposite / outside Maddie Batiste had a match of 3-0-8, and senior Colleen Hannigan went 3-0-14 in one match.
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- At 6-4 (a flip-flop of last year's 4-6 mark), the Falcons have their best record through 10 matches since 2014, when they were 8-2.
-- They have won four of their last five, the only loss during that stretch being last Thursday's four-gamer against Concordia-Portland.
-- SPU has a 5-3 record outside of Brougham Pavilion this season, and is 1-1 in true road matches (a win at Hawaii Pacific, a loss at Chaminade).
-- Last year's match at Fairbanks went to five games. Twice, the Falcons came from a game down to tie it up, and then had a match point at 14-13 in Game 5 before the Nanooks put the final three on the board.
--  UAF's Amberly Jeane and Maddie Davis both slammed 20 kills that night. Jeane is not back, but Davis is.
-- SPU has had the upper hand against Fairbanks for much of the series history, but the Nanooks had won three straight before the Falcons scored a sweep in the 2016 regular-season finale.
-- Seattle Pacific's last win in The Patty Center was a sweep in 2014.
-- The match at Anchorage on Saturday will be the second against a nationally ranked squad this year for the Falcons. The first one was a 3-0 loss to then-No. 3 Nebraska Kearney on Sept. 2 at the Hawaii Challenge.
-- The most recent win vs. a squad in the national top 25 was a four-gamer at then-No. 8 Western Washington on Oct. 24, 2013.
-- Anchorage has won eight in a row against the Falcons.
-- SPU's last victory in the series was Nov. 10, 2012, a four-gamer in Alaska.
-- Seattle Pacific is coming off its best hitting night of the season, .242 in Saturday's sweep of Western Oregon, with just 10 errors on 128 attacks.
-- Through the first 10 matches, SPU's team hitting percentage of .182 is 50 points higher than the .132 it had through 10 last fall.
 
SCOUTING REPORT
ALASKA FAIRBANKS NANOOKS: 7-4, 0-2 GNAC (tie 10th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 37-12. Current series streak: SPU won 1. Last time: SPU 3, UAF 0 (25-22, 25-14, 25-13; Nov. 19, 2016) at Seattle. Nanooks on the Web.
Nanooks in a nutshell: Despite last week's slow start in GNAC play, Alaska Fairbanks already has more than doubled last year's win total of three. The Nanooks are doing it with some of the best offense in the conference: third in hitting at .237 (No. 38 nationally) third in kills at 13.23 per game (No. 56), and first in service aces at 2.10 (No. 24). Fairbanks has two hitters among the conference's top 10: senior 6-foot middle blocker Riley Podowicz at .321 with 140 kills, and 5-11 sophomore middle Kim Wong at .304 with 115 kills. Of the GNAC's top 10 in service aces, four are Nanooks, led by the 18 of 5-10 freshman setter Cate Whiting. Sophomore 5-8 outside hitter Gabby Lerma leads UAF with 104 kills (2.74 per game)l.
 
ALASKA ANCHORAGE SEAWOLVES: 7-4, 2-0 GNAC (tie 1st)
All-time series: SPU leads, 28-25. Current series streak: UAA won 8. Last time: UAA 3, SPU 0 (25-21, 28-26, 25-21; Nov. 17, 2016 at Seattle). Seawolves on the Web.
Seawolves in a nutshell: Alaska Anchorage played a challenging preseason schedule that included a stretch of three straight matches against nationally ranked opponents. It got swept by then-No. 24 Cal Baptist, bounced back for a five-game win against Concordia Irvine, then took No. 11 Cal State San Bernardino to five before falling short. Sophomore 5-foot-11 middle blocker Vanessa Hayes is the eighth-best hitter in the GNAC at .285. Anchorage has a pair of front-row threats in 5-8 junior outside hitter Chrisalyn Johnson (130 kills / 2.83 per game) and Leah Swiss (127 / 2.76), a 6-foot junior outside Leah Swiss, who was voted by conference coaches as the GNAC Preseason Player of the Year. Those two also form part of a tough serving rotation. Setting the pace is senior defensive specialist Keala Kaio-Perez, with a conference-high 24 aces. Swiss is close behind with 22, and Johnson has 14.
 
COACH ABBIE WRIGHT SAYS …
(On the journey to Alaska)
"It's a fun trip, but it's definitely a taxing trip with the distance and everything like that. Just getting everybody to stay focused and play two different teams on the road can be a challenge. But I think our girls have been doing a really good job of being flexible and being coachable. It will be interesting to see what they can do with a mental and physical challenge like that."

 

(On UAF and UAA)
"They're both both good teams, and both very different styles of play. So it's how fast can you adjust in 48 hours from playing a particular style to playing a different style and planning for different players. How fast can you adapt? If we can adapt fast, I think we'll be OK."
 
(On her thoughts 10 matches into the season)
"There's still some growth. At this point of the season, it's easy to get lethargic when your in the middle (of the year). But they're practicing harder than we have in a while. I don't think we've hit our peak. That has been kind of cool to see us not plateauing yet. I think we're still on the rise."
 
DOUBLE-DOUBLE DELIGHTS
Junior setter Symone Tran hit the big three-oh in terms of double-doubles last week. Tran had one against Concordia-Portland and another against Western Oregon, giving her 30 for her career.
 
Sophomore outside hitter Gabby Oddo, with her 10 kills and 10 digs on Saturday against Western Oregon, put her first 2017 double-double into the books. Oddo had 13 of them before her freshman season was halted last October due to an injury.
 
Colleen Hannigan
(0 season / 2 career)
 
Hannah Lautenbach
(4 season / 15 career)
15K-14D vs. UC Colo. Springs, Aug. 31
12K-11D at Hawaii Pacific, Sept. 1
11K-10D at Chaminade, Sept. 2
11K-15D vs. Cal State East Bay, Sept. 8
 
Gabby Oddo
(1 season / 14 career)
10K-10D vs. Western Oregon, Sept. 16
 
Symone Tran
(4 season / 30 career)
47 AST-16D vs. UC Colo. Springs, Aug. 31
48 AST-14D vs. Cal State East Bay, Sept. 8
43 AST-12D vs. Concordia-Portland, Sept. 14
31 AST-14D vs. Western Oregon, Sept. 16
 
MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN DIFFERENT SPOTS
Mallie Donohoe is listed on the roster as an outside hitter. But through the first 10 matches, the sophomore from Wildomar, California, is making sizable contributions in numerous other areas.
 
Donohoe wore the opposite-colored libero's uniform for the first two matches of the season. Then, she switched to being a defensive and serving specialist. Heading into this week, Donohoe has 72 digs, with four matches in double digits. (That includes a career-high 13 in a three-game sweep of Hawaii Pacific on Sept. 1.).
 
She also has earned 13 assists, and delivered eight service aces. Donohoe didn't have a tally in either category last year. And, she still manages to get in a few attacks when the opportunity presents itself, having recorded three kills so far in 2017.
 
All of that has helped Donohoe earn playing time in 36 of the 40 sets that SPU has played. That already exceeds the 22 sets she played last year as a freshman.
 
ON THE (SERVING) RUN
As she continues growing into her role, Donohoe has become one of the team's steadier servers. In last week's two matches, she had four multiple-point serving runs. One of those was in the opening game against Western Oregon, helping the Falcons go from 2-1 down to 6-2 ahead.
 
Gabby Oddo also had four, with three of those against WOU. One of those was at the outset of Game 2 as Seattle Pacific bolted to a 3-0 lead; another was near the end of that game, extending a 20-18 lead to 23-18.
 
Seniors Sophie Kuehl and Hannah Lautenbach, and junior Amanda Ganete each had two multiple-point runs last week.
 
TCHABS IS CHALKING UP THE BLOCKS
While Shaun Crespi is sidelined with an injury through the early part of the season, the Falcons needed someone to step up at the middle blocker position.
 
That someone has been Nicole Tchabanov.

 

The 6-foot-2 sophomore is the team's leading blocker through 10 matches with 34 total. She is rapidly approaching the 45 total blocks she recorded as a freshman in 2016. This year's collection includes six solos, well ahead of the one solo she has last year.
 
She has at least one block in nine matches, with six in the season-opener against UC Colorado Springs, five at Chaminade, and five in last Saturday's Western Oregon contest.
 
Tchabanov also has been a big help offensively with 54 kills. That's already 11 more than last year.
 
AROUND THE WEST
Northwest Nazarene and Alaska Anchorage were the only two GNAC teams to win their first two conference matches last week. The Crusaders remain the only team in the GNAC with an overall perfect record, now sitting at 10-0. They visit the two Oregon schools this week. Alaska Fairbanks and Simon Fraser were the only schools to lose their first two. That means there's a massive deadlock for third place, with seven teams at 1-1.
  Cal Baptist was one of four teams in the Pacific West Conference to start off 2-0. The Lancers also maintained their overall perfect record, now at 9-0. Azusa Pacific is putting itself in good position for possible postseason play at 9-1, ditto Chaminade at 7-3.
 
Cal State Los Angeles is off to a 3-0 start in the California Collegiate Athletic Association after going just 4-4 in preseason play. Cal State East Bay and Sonoma State are both 2-0, and they have the two best overall records in the league: 8-2 for East Bay, 8-3 for Sonoma. Perennial West Region power Cal State San Bernardino is just 5-5 so far, 1-1 in conference.
 
UP NEXT
After returning home from Alaska, the Falcons have an unusual schedule next week. On Tuesday, Sept. 26, they are home in Brougham Pavilion against Saint Martin's. First serve is at 7:00 p.m. SPU travels to Montana State Billings on Thursday the 28th, with a starting time of 6:00 p.m. PDT. With that Tuesday-Thursday combination, the team will be off on Saturday the 30th.
 
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                Conference          Overall
Northwest Nazarene       2-0         10-0
Alaska Anchorage         2-0          7-4
Western Washington       1-1          7-3
Concordia-Portland       1-1          6-3
Central Washington       1-1          6-4
Saint Martin's           1-1          6-4
Seattle Pacific          1-1          6-4
Western Oregon           1-1          5-4
Montana State Billings   1-1          5-5
Alaska Fairbanks         0-2          7-4
Simon Fraser             0-2          3-7