D2 WEST REGION SHOWCASE SCHEDULE
At Special Events Center / Fresno, Calif.
 
Friday, Aug. 31                   Seattle Pacific vs. Chico State, 1:00 p.m.
                                        Seattle Pacific vs. Chaminade, 7:45 p.m.
 
Saturday, Sept. 1                Seattle Pacific vs. Fresno Pacific, 1:00 p.m.
                                        Seattle Pacific vs. UC San Diego, 5:30 p.m.
                                        Live Webcasts / live stats (all matches)
 
 
          Weekly release, with complete updated stats (PDF)
        Tournament Central (HTML)
 
SEATTLE – The Seattle Pacific Falcons believe they learned some valuable lessons from their first three volleyball matches of the season.
 
They'll get a chance to put that to the test in their final preseason tournament of the year.
 
After winning one of their three matches in last week's Falcon-Wildcat Invitational, SPU hits the road this week, flying off to California for the D2 West Region Showcase.
 
The two-day event in the Special Events Center at Fresno Pacific University will include two contests on Friday and two more on Saturday for the Falcons. First up will be Chico State at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, followed by Chaminade at 7:45. On Saturday, it's a rematch against host FPU at 1:00 p.m. and the finale against UC San Diego at 5:30.
 
The Falcons opened the 2018 campaign with a four-game victory against the Sunbirds last Friday in Brougham Pavilion, the fell to No. 11-ranked Cal State San Bernardino later that day, and dropped a five-gamer to Metro State last Saturday at Central Washington University in Ellensburg.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Free live Webcasts and live stats will be available from all four matches. However, only the contest against Fresno Pacific will have play-by-play commentary. The other three will have video streaming only, along with live stats. The appropriate link can be found at the top of this story.
 
SHOWTIME AT THE SHOWCASE
This is the third year of the D2 Showcase. The tournament had its origins in 2014 as the GNAC-Pacific West Crossover, with the Pac West hosting the first one and the GNAC (including SPU) hosting the second.
 
The California Collegiate Athletic Association came aboard in 2016, making it a true West Region crossover event, with all matches counting toward the regional rankings that ultimately determine who qualifies for the NCAA Tournament. The CCAA hosted the first one, the GNAC hosted last year (SPU played in the pod at Western Oregon University), and it's now the Pac West's turn.
 
Each pod has two teams from each conference, based on the previous year's final standings. This week's group at Fresno Pacific includes the fifth- and sixth-place finishers from last season: Simon Fraser and SPU of the GNAC, Chaminade and Azusa Pacific of the Pac West, along with UC San Diego and Chico State of the CCAA.

The CCAA will be next year's host, followed by the GNAC in 2020 and the Pac West in 2021.
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- SPU is 6-2 all-time in the Showcase, going 3-1 in each of the first two.
-- Last year at Western Oregon, the Falcons were swept by Chaminade in the opener, scored come-from-behind five-game victories against Cal State East Bay and Fresno Pacific, and finished with a four-game victory against Cal State San Marcos after dropping the first game.
-- Saturday's match against Fresno Pacific will mark the third straight year SPU has played one opponent twice during preseason play. In 2016, it was Azusa Pacific (The Falcons swept the first and took a five-gamer in the second), and last year, it was Chaminade (the Silverswords won the first in five and the second in a sweep).
-- With a 1-2 record, Seattle Pacific will need to win at least three of the four matches this week to finish above .500 for preseason play. The team went 5-3 last year and 4-4 in 2016.
-- Saturday's match against Fresno Pacific will be SPU's first true road match of the year. The other three will be considered neutral court, as was last Saturday's five-gamer against Metro State at Central Washington.
-- Seattle Pacific went 11-7 away from Brougham Pavilion last fall: 7-5 in true road matches, 4-2 on neutral courts.
-- Chico State has not been on the schedule since 2013, when the Falcons scored a three-game sweep in Brougham Pavilion as part of the Seattle Pacific Tournament.
-- The only time the Falcons have beaten UC San Diego was in five games on Aug. 24, 2007 at the Coyote Classic in San Bernardino.
-- In last year's first match against Chaminade, played on the Silverswords' home court as part of the Hawaii Challenge, SPU was up 2 games to 1. When it went to a fifth game, the Falcons built leads of 3-0 and 5-2, but couldn't hang on as Chaminade came back to win it, 15-11.
-- In the rematch at Western Oregon one week later the Swords built big leads in all three games (12-5 in Game 1, 13-8 in Game 2, and 7-2 in Game 3) on the way to the sweep.
-- Emma Tecklenberg, now a junior for Chaminade, double-doubled in both matches: 16 kills and 12 digs in the first one; 12 kills (on .313 hitting) and 10 digs in the second.
-- SPU dropped Game 1 to Fresno Pacific last week, 26-24, then came back to win the next three and the match. Last year, the Falcons lost Game 1 in 16 matches, but came back to win five of those.
-- Although she's now focused entirely on SPU, second-year head coach Abbie Wright, who played at Los Angeles-based Biola, then served as an assistant coach there for four season before coming to Seattle, still checks out the results from her alma mater when she has a chance. One in particular popped out last week, as the Eagles beat Falcons GNAC rival Northwest Nazarene in five games.
-- These will be Wright's first matches against Chico State and UC San Diego. She is 1-0 against Fresno Pacific and 0-2 against Chaminade.
 
CHICO STATE WILDCATS: 4-0, 17-14 in 2017 (9-9 / 3^rd CCAA North)
All-time series: Chico leads, 10-7. Current series streak: SPU won 1. Last time: SPU 3, Chico 0 (Sept. 4, 2014 at Seattle). Wildcats on the Web. Wildcats in a nutshell: Chico State rolled through four matches at last week's NorCal Volleyball Classic in Turlock, Calif., dropping just two games along the way. The Wildcats topped .200 hitting in three of the four matches, inclidung .333 in the opener versus Antelope Valley. Kim Wright, a 5-foot-10 junior middle hitter, led the way with 44 kills and hit .366, tops among the regular attackers. Wright got it done defensively, too, with a team-leading 15 total blocks. Also providing some offensive punch were 5-10 junior outside / opposite Bekah Boyle (38 kills) and 6-1 sophomore middle hitter Kelley Jacome (32 kills, along with 10 blocks). Making sure they got the ball at the right time was 5-9 junior setter Nicole Desrochers (117 assists, and some error-free hitting with 9 kills on 17 attacks).
 
CHAMINADE SILVERSWORDS: 2-0, 16-12 in 2017 (11-9 / tie 6^th Pac West)
All-time series: SPU leads, 11-5. Current series streak: Chaminade won 2. Last time: Chaminade 3, SPU 0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-14; Sept. 7, 2017 at Monmouth, Ore.). Silverswords on the Web.
Silverswords in a nutshell: On the scoreboard, it was a good week for Chaminade, as it beat GNAC members Simon Fraser in a sweep and Saint Martin's in four games at the First Hawaiian Bank Volleyball Challenge in Hilo. But that's all the action the Silverswords got. Their final two matches – against St. Cloud State of Minnesota, and UC San Diego – were canceled because of Hurricane Lane, which dumped 34 inches of rain on parts of the Big Island, including 20 inches at Hilo Airport. In its two matches, Hilo out-hit its GNAC opponents by nearly 100 points, .236 to .138. Junior 5-11 outside hitter Emma Tecklenburg led the way with 28 kills and solid .317 hitting, with just eight errors on 58 swings. Alana Handy, a 5-10 junior outside, added 20 kills. Sophomore 5-11 opposite Rachel Reedy had 19 kills and hit .459, with just two errors on 37 attacks.
 
FRESNO PACIFIC SUNBIRDS: 0-4, 12-17 in 2017 (10-10 / 8^th Pac West)
All-time series: SPU leads, 4-2. Current series streak: SPU won 2. Last time: SPU 3, FPU 1 (24-26, 25-13, 25-17, 28-26; Aug. 24, 2018 at Seattle).  Sunbirds on the Web.
Sunbirds in a nutshell: It wasn't the kind of opening week Fresno Pacific had in mind. After winning the first game of the first match against Seattle Pacific, the Sunbirds lost 12 in a row: the next three in that match and all three in subsequent matches against Cal State Bernardino, Metro State, and Central Washington. Senior 5-10 outside hitter Caroline Bodziak had 32 kills for the tournament, with 12 of those against SPU. Carly Bock, a 6-foot senior opposite, added 27 kills in the four matches, and 5-7 junior setter Christina Tran added 23. Bock also was the leading hitter among the regular attackers at .184.
 
UC SAN DIEGO TRITONS: 2-0, 16-10 in 2017 (10-7, tie 3^rd CCAA South)
All-time series: UCSD leads, 9-1. Current series streak: UCSD won 5. Last time: UCSD 3, SPU 1 (25-22, 25-17, 26-24, 25-21; Sept. 3, 2016 at Irvine, Calif.) Tritons on the Web.
Tritons in a nutshell: UC San Diego was one of the teams whose week got cut short by the hurricane in Hilo. Before it did, the Tritons beat Hawaii Pacific in four games, then came back from dropping the first two games to pull out a five-game victory against host Hawaii Hilo. UCSD's roster includes eight players in their first year with the team. One of them, 6-foot-1 sophomore outside hitter Gina Cortesi, a transfer from Louisiana Tech, set the pace with 22 kills and hit a solid .286, with just six errors on a team-leading 56 attacks. She double-doubled in both matches: 10 kills and 10 digs against HPU; 12 kills and 11 digs against Hilo. Junior 6-3 middle blocker Jessica Rieble chipped in 18 kills, hit .324, and had a team-high 10 total blocks.
 
ACE IN THE HOLE
In the season-opener against Fresno Pacific last Friday, the Falcons kept serving them up … and kept dropping them down for aces.
 
The four-game victory was sparked in part by 17 service aces. That came within one of the school record of 18, set on Oct. 21, 1993 in Seattle against Eastern Montana College – now known by its more familiar moniker of Montana State Billings.
 
 

Leading the way was redshirt senior opposite Hailey Gaines, who delivered a career-high seven. That was one more than she had during her entire three years at Concordia Irvine. Gaines had four as a freshman in 2014 and two more as a redshirt junior last fall.
 
Senior setter Symone Tran added a career-high four aces (including a stretch of three in a row midway through Game 3). Senior libero Amanda Ganete and junior outside hitter Gabby Oddo had three each.
 
The team total of 25 ranks No. 2 in the GNAC behind the whopping 47 that Montana State Billings delivered in four matches last week. And, at least for the moment, SPU has more aces than service errors (19).
 
REWRITING HER RECORD BOOK
The seven aces by Hailey Gaines was the outright career high she recorded in her first week of competition as a Falcon. It beat her previous high of four, served up against Montana Tech on Aug. 22, 2014, when the left-handed Gaines made her college debut as a freshman for Concordia Irvine.
 
Later last Friday against Cal State San Bernardino, Gaines earned one assist, something she had done in seven previous matches for CUI.
 
The next night against Metro State in Ellensburg, Gaines had five total blocks, all of them block assists. That tied her career high in both categories. She had five in two previous matches for Irvine, most recently against Chaminade last Oct. 7. She will get another look at that team when the Falcons and Silverswards square off on Friday at 7:45 p.m. in Fresno.
 
THERE'S THAT THOUSAND THING AGAIN
No doubt about it: Some "grand" possibilities are on the 2018 docket for SPU.
 
The most prominent will be the program's 1,000^th all-time match, set for the season finale on Saturday, Nov. 10 at home against Western Washington.
 
But that's not all.
 
Symone Tran is on the verge of her 1,000^th career dig, and she has a good chance of getting it this week. Tran had 44 last week, and now stands at 943.
 
Gabby Oddo has a chance to reach 1,000 kills and 1,000 points. The junior begins this week with 681 kills after collecting 43 in last week's three matches. And, she's at 758 points (a combination of kills, aces, and blocks), having tacked on 51 last week.
 
BASTISTE'S BREAKKOUT
Sooner or later, Maddie Batiste was going to have the kind of a match that put her talents on full display.
 
 

Now an SPU sophomore, the 2016 Player of the Year in Oregon had just such a match last Saturday in Ellensburg against Denver's Metro State.
 
Batiste hammered 13 kills and came up with 19 digs as the Falcons went all the way to five games with the Roadrunners before falling short. Both totals were career highs by a substantial margin. Her previous bests, established last year as a freshman were four kills (twice) and four digs.
 
Along with that, Batiste had two blocks (one solo), three assists (a career high), and one service ace.
 
The dig total was nine more than she had all of last season, when she played in 21 matches totaling 48 games. Her 13 kills were just one fewer than her 2017 total.
 
DOUBLE-DOUBLE DELIGHTS
The Falcons recorded five double-doubles in their first three matches last week. In addition to Batiste's, Gabby Oddo and Symone Tran each put two into the books.
 
Maddie Batiste (1 season / 1 career)
13K-13D vs. Metro State, Aug. 25
 
Shaun Crespi (0 season  1 career)
 
Gabby Oddo (2 season / 22 career)
19K-12D vs. Fresno Pacific, Aug. 24
13K-17D vs. Metro State, Aug. 25
 
Symone Tran (2 season / 47 career)
38 AST-19D vs. Fresno State, Aug. 24
39 AST-20D vs. Metro State, Aug. 25.
 
AROUND THE WEST
Among the surprises in the GNAC for Week 1 was the 4-0 start by Montana State Billings and the 0-3 beginning for then-19^th-ranked Northwest Nazarene.
 
The Yellowjackets, playing at the Minnesota State Moorhead Classic, beat South Dakota Mines and the University of Mary in five games each, then downed Minot State of North Dakota in four and Western State of Colorado in three. MSUB won just nine matches all of last season.
 
NNU lost all three of its matches at the Fairfield Inn Invitational, which the Nighthawks hosted in Nampa, Idaho. They fell to Cal State Monterey Bay in four games, Dixie State in five and Biola of Los Angeles in five. Alaska Anchorage earned GNAC Team of the Week by going 3-0 at its own UAA Invitational. Unanimous conference favorite Western Washington went 1-3 in the power-packed West Florida Invitational – all against nationally ranked teams. The Vikings fell to No. 24 Wheeling Jesuit, No. 2 Southwest Minnesota State, and No. 7 Regis before pulling out a five-gamer against No. 15 and host West Florida.
 
Cal State San Bernardino swept all four opponents in the Falcon-Wildcat Invitational, including SPU and Central Washington. Other California Collegiate Athletic Association undefeateds are Chico State, Staislaus State and Cal State Los Angeles, all 4-0, San Francisco State (3-0) and UC San Diego (2-0).
 
In the Pacific West Conference, Chaminade (2-0) is the only unbeaten, although Dominican and Holy Names have yet to play.
 


AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for the latest results, news, notes, and statistics from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
UP NEXT
Seattle Pacific opens its GNAC schedule on the road next week. The Falcons visit Western Washington in Bellingham on Thursday, Sept. 6, then journey across the border to Burnaby, B.C., for a match at Simon Fraser on Saturday, Sept. 8. Both start at 7:00 p.m. The conference home opener is Thursday, Sept. 13 against Western Oregon in Brougham Pavilion. First serve is at 7:00 p.m.
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                       GNAC     Overall
Montana State Billings    0-0     4-0
Alaska Anchorage          0-0     3-0
Alaska Fairbanks          0-0     2-1
Central Washington        0-0     2-1
Concordia-Portland        0-0     2-1
Simon Fraser              0-0     1-1
Seattle Pacific           0-0     1-2
Western Washington        0-0     1-3
Saint Martin's            0-0     0-2
Northwest Nazarene        0-0     0-3
Western Oregon            0-0     0-3