THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Oct. 31                Seattle Pacific at Western Oregon, 7:00 p.m.
                                                New P.E. Building / Monmouth, Ore.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, Nov. 2                  Seattle Pacific at Concordia-Portland, 2:00 p.m.
                                                LCEF Court / Portland, Ore.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
  
        Weekly release, with complete updated stats (PDF)

SEATTLE – For the past two weeks, the Seattle Pacific Falcons have found different ways to win volleyball matches. The point is, they're winning them.
 
Riding the momentum of four consecutive victories, SPU takes to the road this week, visiting the Oregon schools for a pair of Great Northwest Athletic Conference matches.
 
First up is Western Oregon in Monmouth on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. On Saturday, Concordia-Portland will be on the other side of the beginning at 2:00 p.m.
 
When those teams played in Seattle in early October, the Falcons fell in four games to Concordia, but swept past the Wolves.
 
SPU (9-11, 6-6 GNAC) is coming off a pair of homecourt wins last week, as it downed Northwest Nazarene in three games, then came from behind to beat Central Washington in five.
 
The current four-match win streak includes a home sweep (NNU), a road sweep (Saint Martin's), a four-gamer on the road (Montana State Billings) and the five-gamer at home (Central).
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Free live Webcasts and live stats will be available for all GNAC matches, home and away. The appropriate links for this week's home contests can be found at the top of this story.
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- This is Seattle Pacific's longest winning streak since it strung together five in a row last September.
-- The Falcons come into the week tied for sixth in the standings with Northwest Nazarene.at 6-6. They are one match behind Alaska Fairbanks and Central Washington, both of whom are 7-5.
-- A win at Western Oregon would put Seattle Pacific above .500 in the GNAC standings for the first time since last Nov. 1 when it was 9-8 after a win at Alaska Anchorage.
-- SPU will be looking for a third consecutive season series sweep against Western Oregon, and will be aiming for a split against Concordia-Portland.
-- It already has swept one series, that being against Northwest Nazarene.
-- Saturday's five-game win against Central Washington was the first time this season the Falcons have pulled out the victory after dropping the first two games. The other six times that happened, the opponent went on to win.
-- Twice during these four consecutive wins, they have come back after dropping the first game.
-- For the week, SPU came up with 177 digs – a season-high 97 vs. Central, and 80 vs. Northwest Nazarene. And, the 80 in the NNU match came in just three games.
-- A total of five players had double-digit digs vs. Northwest Nazarene, the most the Falcons have had in any match this season. In four others, they have had four get into double digits.
-- Senior outside hitter Gabby Oddo double-doubled against both Oregon schools in Seattle: 12 kills and 15 digs vs. Concordia, 14 kills and 15 digs vs. WOU.
-- Junior opposite / outside Maddie Batiste and junior middle blocker Gabi Stegemoller joined her in double-digit kills in the Western Oregon match, both with 11.
-- The Falcons had their best hitting day of the season against the Wolves, finishing at .351 with 52 kills and just 12 errors on 114 attacks.
-- One of the goals of many teams is to limit errors to no more than 10 percent of total attacks. SPU came close against Western Oregon at 10.5 percent (12 errors / 114 attacks). In last Thursday's win against Northwest Nazarene, it was 9.6 percent (13 errors / 136 attacks).
-- The Falcons are in the top half of the GNAC stats for kills per game (fourth at 12.29), assists per game (fourth at 11.47) and service aces (fifth at 1.72).
-- Coach Abbie Wright is 5-0 all-time against Western Oregon and 3-2 against Concordia-Portland.
 
SCOUTING REPORT
WESTERN OREGON WOLVES: 3-16, 1-11 GNAC (10^th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 32-18. Current series streak: SPU won 5. Last time: SPU 3, WOU 0 (25-16, 25-21, 25-19; Oct. 5 at Seattle). Wolves on the Web.
Wolves in a nutshell: Western Oregon will be looking to snap a seven-match losing streak. its only conference victory was at Saint Martin's on Oct 3 – and the clinching game of that one went all the way to 32-30. Just one week later, the Wolves lost the first two games to Alaska Anchorage, but came all the way back to force a fifth, which the Seawolves ultimately won, 15-13. Last week, WOU got a game at Simon Fraser, then was swept at Western Washington. Junior 6-foot outside hitter  Sianna DeCarli is WOU's top weapon on offense, as she has 174 kills, an average of 2.72 per game. She had eight against the Falcons and it .227 in the match earlier in October. Lauren Smith, a 6-1 freshman outside, and senior 6-2 middle / opposite Allyson Crisp also can be effective. Smith has 122 kills (2.00 per game). Crisp has 101, hits at a .275 clip, and also has a team-high 48 blocks. Delaney Smith, a sophomore 6-2 middle, hits .364 and is right behind Crisp with 45 blocks.
 
CONCORDIA-PORTLAND CAVALIERS: 7-12, 5-7 GNAC (8^th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 10-6. Current series streak: CU won 1. Last time: CU 3, SPU 1 (25-20, 25-16, 21-25, 25-15; Oct. 3 at Seattle). Cavaliers on the Web.
Cavaliers in a nutshell: Concordia is coming off a rough road trip. It dropped a five-gamer at Northwest Nazarene, then was swept at Central Washington, Western Washington, and Simon Fraser. Prior to that, the Cavaliers had won five out of eight in GNAC play, including the four-game victory at SPU. Senior 5-foot-10 outside hitter Jessica Wheeler sets the pace in kills, with 182 for the season, a 2.94 average that ranks No. 11 in the GNAC. She was on target in the earlier match against the Falcons with a team-high 13 and a .250 hitting percentage. Wheeler made it a double-double with 10 digs, and ranks No. 3 on the team in that department with 192. Katelyn Brandenburg is an all-around force for Concordia. She has 158 kills, hits a team-leading .304, and has gotten her hands onto 49 blocks, second-most on the team. Also tough on the block is junior 6-1 middle Alyssa Rose with 72 total (1.06 per game, No. 5 in the GNAC) and nine solos.
 
COACH ABBIE WRIGHT SAYS …
 

(On what fueled the big comeback against Central)
"One of our team values is to have grit, and I think we're figuring out what that means. As a team, we played really well, and that's a testament to it being a team sport and all 16 people contribute to. We were resilient, we came back, and I'm really proud of them for that. It was just trusting our process and remembering our system and remembering our scouting report," Wright said, "and not getting carried away in the emotional highs and lows of the match."
 
(On what last week's wins can mean going forward)
"I really do feel like our team is trusting each other and getting better at some of those things. It really has been great to see them hit their stride and see the trust level increase and see the way the communication level is increasing on the court. That's something we can build on."
 
DOUBLE-DOUBLE DELIGHTS
It's not at all unusual for Gabby Oddo to have back-to-back double-doubles for the Falcons – and she did that again last week in the Northwest Nazarene and Central Washington matches. Now, freshman Lindsey Lambert has joined that group, with the second and third double-doubles of her career and her first back-to-back combo.
 
SPU now has 28 for the season.
 
Taylor Alicuben (1 season / 1 career)
32 AST-10D vs. Hawaii Hilo, Sept. 13
 
Maddie Batiste (12 season / 13 career)
14K-10D vs. Cal State East Bay, Sept. 7
11K-14D vs. Concordia Irvine, Sept. 7
12K-10D vs. Point Loma Nazarene, Sept. 8
13K-13D vs. Cal Poly Pomona, Sept. 12
14K-11D vs. Cal St. Monterey Bay, Sept. 12
20K-15D vs. Hawaii Hilo, Sept. 13
20K-11D vs. Chaminade, Sept. 14
11K-10D vs. Alaska Fairbanks, Sept. 21
16K-12D at Northwest Nazarene, Sept. 28
14K-16D at Simon Fraser, Oct. 10
19K-17D at Montana State Billings, Oct. 19
10K-19D vs. Northwest Nazarene, Oct. 24
 
Lindsey Lambert (3 season / 3 career)
39 AST-10D at Northwest Nazarene, Sept. 28
36 AST-10D vs. Northwest Nazarene, Oct. 24
47 AST-24D vs. Central Washington, Oct. 26
 
Gabby Oddo (12 season / 48 career)
17K-11D vs. Concordia Irvine, Sept. 7
14K-14D vs. Point Loma Nazarene, Sept. 8
15K-11D vs. Cal Poly Pomona, Sept. 12
14K-16D vs. Hawaii Hilo, Sept. 13
12K-18D  vs. Chaminade, Sept. 14
12K-13D vs. Alaska Fairbanks, Sept. 21
20K-14D at Northwest Nazarene, Sept. 28
12K-15D vs. Concordia-Portland, Oct. 3
14K-15D vs. Western Oregon, Oct. 5
16K-13D at Simon Fraser, Oct. 10
16K-10D vs. Northwest Nazarene, Oct. 24
17K-22D vs. Central Washington, Oct. 26
 
HOW ABOUT THOSE FAB FRESHMEN?
On the roster, Paige Dawson, Delaney Dunham, and Lindsey Lambert are listed as freshmen.
 
On the court, they're performing like the experienced players that they quickly have become.
 
Last week, that trio delivered in a big way to help the Falcons win their matches against Northwest Nazarene and Central Washington.
 
 

Against NNU, Dunham had four kills, hit .375, and came up with two blocks, one of which was a solo during a Game 3 comeback that saw SPU come from 19-14 down and climb into a 19-19 tie. Dawson had three multiple-point serving runs, and delivered the ball for the last four points of that 5-0 surge. Lambert recorded the second double-double of her career, with 36 assists and 10 digs.
 
Those three were personally responsible for the final two points of Saturday's dramatic come-from-behind victory against Central. At 16-16 in the deciding fifth game, Dunham and Lambert combined on a block against CWU's Makayla Swart, who already had 20 kills for the day. Then, serving match point, Dawson sent a sinker over the net that dropped to the court before a Wildcats player could get her hands under it.
 
Dunham finished with a career-high nine block assists, and Lambert double-doubled again, this time with a career-high 24 digs, and 47 assists, which tied her career high.
 
A CAREER DAY – FOR LOTS OF CAREERS
The SPU-Central Washington five-gamer on Saturday led to not one or two, but six career highs.
 
Delaney Dunham had three of those, with eight kills and nine block assists, the latter of which also was a career high for total blocks. Her previous highs were seven kills and seven blocks.
 
 

Maddie

Batiste set a new high with 65 attacks (previous 55). Gabi Stegemoller had 31 attacks (previous 26), and Lindsey Lambert had 24 digs (more than doubling her previous high of 10).
 
The Northwest Nazarene match produced a pair of new personal standards: four digs for Paige Dawson (previous three), and two assists for Stegemoller (previous one).
 
WATCHING THE ODDO-METER
No, not the odometer – that's the one on the car dashboard that tracks mileage.
 
This one tracks kills, points, and digs for senior outside hitter Gabby Oddo – and those numbers keep rolling ever higher.
 
 

With her 17 kills in the Central Washington match last Saturday, Oddo moved into the No. 2 spot on SPU's all-time career kills list. She now has 1,256, moving past Leilani Kamahoahoa's 1,249 from 1998-2001. The only one ahead of Oddo now is Alyssa Given, and she very likely will stay in that top spot. Given hammered 1,454 from 2004-07, a difference of 198 with just eight matches left in the season.
 
Oddo also moved up to No 4 on the career points list, now with 1,419. She passed the 1,385.5 that Nikki Lowell recorded from 2010-13. Still within reach is No. 3 Kamahoahoa, who scored 1,461.5. After that, it's all the way up to No. 2 Given (1,718) and No. 1 Tosca Lindberg (1,773 from 1989-92).

AROUND THE WEST After ending the first half of the GNAC schedule with a four-game loss at Alaska Anchorage, Western Washington got back onto the winning track with home sweeps of Concordia-Portland and Western Oregon. The Vikings (19-1, 11-1 GNAC) maintained its one-match lead on UAA. The Seawolves had their hands full, coming from1-0 and 2-1 down to beat Fairbanks in five games, then downed Montana State Billings in four. Simon Fraser (13-7, 9-3), on a seven-match win streak, hosts Western on Tuesday.
 
National No. 1-ranked Cal State San Bernardino kept its record perfect in part by sweeping San Francisco State in a match between the North and South Division leaders in the California Collegiate Athletic Association. The Coyotes (19-0, 12-0 South) downed the Gators (13-7, 6-5 North), 25-21, 25-21, 25-22. On Friday, it's San Bernardino at Cal State L.A. (14-5, 10-1 CCAA and No. 2 in the South).
 
Chaminade saw its 13-match Pacific West Conference winning streak end with a 3-0 home loss to Azusa Pacific. The Silverswords (19-3, 13-1) remain atop the pack, but Hawaii Hilo (17-5, 12-2), riding a 12-match winning streak, is right behind. Also still in the hunt are Azusa (16-4,10-2) and Hawaii Pacific (15-7, 11-3). Hilo plays at HPU on Saturday and at Chaminade on Sunday.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons begin their final homestand of the season next week with the first of four consecutive matches in Brougham Pavilion. Nationally ranked Western Washington is in town on Thursday, Nov. 7, at 7:00 p.m., followed by Simon Fraser on Saturday, Nov. 9, at 1:00 p.m. SPU lost in three games at Western and in five at Simon Fraser in early October.
 
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                  Conference      Overall
Western Washington        11-1      19-1
Alaska Anchorage          10-2      15-5
Simon Fraser               9-3      13-7
Central Washington         7-5      12-8
Alaska Fairbanks           7-5      10-10
Northwest Nazarene         6-6      10-9
Seattle Pacific            6-6       9-11
Concordia-Portland         5-7       7-12
Montana State Billings     4-8       7-15
Western Oregon             1-11      3-16
Saint Martin's             0-12      0-21