Box score, play-by-play (HTML)
 
SEATTLE – So many times on Thursday night, the Seattle Pacific Falcons thought they had a ball on the floor and a point on the board.
 
So many times, the Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks thought otherwise.
 
Gabby Oddo tied her season high with 19 kills and double-doubled for the fifth straight match, but SPU could not fend off the Nanooks a five-game Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball match to the Nanooks.
 
Scores in Brougham Pavilion were 19-25, 25-23, 25-22, 21-25, 15-12.
 
SPU (7-9, 5-4 GNAC) lost its third straight. Fairbanks (6-10, 4-5 GNAC) won its third in a row.
 
This was the third consecutive match between the two teams, and fifth time in the last six, that they have gone to the five-game limit. Last year, each team pulled out the win on the other's home court.
 
"They're a team you can't fall asleep on – they're pretty relentless," Falcons head coach Abbie Wright said. "They made some great plays happen and created opportunities for themselves to score
 
"We served pretty well tonight, but I don't know that we capitalized on all of the opportunities that we could score on," Wright added. "We kind of ebbed and flowed, and didn't set the tone like we should have. But credit to Fairbanks."
 
The Falcons had leads of 5-3 and 7-5 in the deciding fifth game and were up 8-7 at the changeover. The Nanooks put the next two points on the board for a 9-8 edge. It was tied 9-9 and 10-10 after that, but Seattle Pacific never got back in front. Fairbanks snapped the 10-10 tie with a 3-0 run, then split the last four points with SPU to put it away.
 
With the match tied at a game apiece, Game 3 took the same turn. Seattle Pacific was up 16-11, and Fairbanks responded with six straight points. Later, the Falcons were up 20-18, and UAF put up three in a row to forge in front, 21-20. SPU tied it one more time at 21-21 and saw the Nanooks make it 24-21 on the way to closing it out and going up in the match, 2 games to 1.
 
The Falcons did lead through most of Game 4 and eventually forced the deciding fifth – the third Thursday in a row SPU has gone that far.
 
"It was about who could outlast whom the longest and who could keep swinging through the fifth, sixth, seventh round through (a rally). They just did better at that tonight and out-worked us a little bit."
 
Alaska Fairbanks dug up 73 of Seattle Pacific's 167 swings. On a handful of other occasions, when the Falcons appeared to have executed a successful block, the tenacious Nanooks managed to keep the ball alive off the net and give themselves another chance to attack.
 
BY THE NUMBERS
-- Last year, Fairbanks came from 12-11 and 13-12 down to win Game 5 by a 16-14 score in Brougham.
 

-- Gabby Oddo's 19-kill performance was her third this season with that many. The junior outside hitter added 10 digs, and hit .294, with just four errors on 51 attacks.
-- Senior setter Symone Tran double-doubled with 43 assists and 10 digs. She also had six total blocks.
 

-- Redshirt senior opposite Hailey Gaines hammered 13 kills. It was her fourth straight match in double-digits, seventh in the last nine, and her third straight in the teens, following a then-career high 15 last Thursday at Northwest Nazarene and a new career high 16 last Saturday at Central Washington.
-- Fairbanks dropped in 13 service aces on the Falcons. No other team had more than six this season.
-- On the final point of Game 4 – which SPU needed to stay alive – there were 18 attacks (nine for each side) before the Falcons finally got the clincher on a combined block by Gaines and Gabi Stegemoller.
-- SPU hit .192 for the match, which included .389 in the opening game, 281 in the second and .217 in the fifth – but below .100 in the third and fourth. Fairbanks checked in at .160, and did not top.200 in any game until the fifth. In that one, it hit .500, with eight kills and no attack errors on 16 swings.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons return to action on Saturday against Alaska Anchorage at 2:00 p.m. in Brougham.

 
NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Thursday, Oct. 4, 2018
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
Alaska Fairbanks 3, Seattle Pacific 2
 
Game scores – 19-25, 25-23, 25-22, 21-25, 15-12.
 
Service aces – UAF 13 (Lahra Weber 5), SPU 7 (Gabby Oddo 3).
Kills – UAF 57 (Weber 20), SPU 56 (Oddo 19, Hailey Gaines 13).
Assists – UAF 53 (Cate Whiting 47), SPU 49 (Symone Tran 43).
Digs – UAF 73 (Mica Shenglen 20), SPU 63 (Mallie Donohoe 16, Amanda Ganete 16).
Block assists / solo – UAF 18 / 1 solo (Emily Moorhead 5 / 0 solo), SPU 24 / 2 solo (Tran 5 / 1 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – UAF 57-31-162—160 (Whiting 6-2-15—267), SPU 56-24-167—192 (Oddo 19-4-51—294).
Attendance – 131.
 
Records – Seattle Pacific 7-9, 5-4 GNAC.   Alaska Fairbanks 6-10, 4-5 GNAC.
 
 
Next match
Alaska Anchorage at Seattle Pacific
Saturday, 2:00 p.m.
Brougham Pavilion.