Box score (PDF)

FAIRBANKS, Alaska – Delaney Dunham. Double digits.
 
All those D's lined up just right for the Seattle Pacific freshman on Thursday night.
 
Dunham slammed a career-high 12 kills, and Gabby Oddo had 17, helping Seattle Pacific beat Alaska Fairbanks in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball match, 3-1.
 
Scores in The Patty Center were 25-21, 26-24, 23-25, 25-21.
 
 

Dunham, a middle blocker, was in double-digit kills for the first time in her career. Her previous best was eight in a five-game victory against Central Washington on Oct. 26.
 
She not only was finding the floor, she was finding it with precision. Dunham hit .579 – also a career best – with just one error on 19 attacks. Her previous hitting high was .538 (7-0-13) in a five-gamer at Simon Fraser on Oct. 10.
 
"In warm-ups, she had a couple balls that she was hitting nice and high and hard, and swinging for the deep corners," Falcons coach Abbie Wright said. "She got some confidence through that, and she went after it during the match. And she did a really great job with her blocking." (Dunham had three block assists and one solo.)
 
 
A BATTLE ALL NIGHT
Nothing came easy in this one for the Falcons (13-14, 10-9 GNAC).
 
SPU trailed for a good chunk of Game 1, three times by as many as four points. The last of those deficits was 20-16, and the Falcons then ran off eight points in a row, the final seven of those with Mallie Donohoe on the serve, to go up 24-20. Alaska Fairbanks (14-13, 11-8 GNAC) got one point back to stay alive, but sophomore Erin Gould got the clincher on a solo block.
 
 After leading for most of Game 2, Seattle Pacific found itself with a game point at 24-23. The Nanooks fought off that one with a kill. Then a kill by Oddo off a Fairbanks blocker and a UAF bad set put the final two points on the Falcons' side for a 2-0 lead.
 
The Nanooks built an 18-11 lead in Game 3, then hung onto take it and keep the match going. SPU took a 19-13 lead in the fourth game. Alaska Fairbanks came within two on four occasions, the last time at 23-21. A serve went wide to give the Falcons match point, and Oddo converted it with a kill that deflected off a UAF player.
 
"They're really hard to beat, especially in their home gym," head coach Abbie Wright said. "They're just a really good defensive team, and dig a lot of balls up. Our players did a good job of figuring out ways to score and mixed up the offense a little bit.
 
"It was a great team effort, and it's nice for them to see this is what finishing the season strong looks like," Wright added.
 
BY THE NUMBERS
-- SPU hit .176 for the night (52 kills-25 errors-153 attacks). But with the match on the line, the Falcons were especially accurate in Game 4, with 17 kills and just one error on 43 swings for a .372 percentage.
 

-- Delaney Dunham wasn't the only Falcon hitting in the .500s on Thursday. While she finished at .579, Erin Gould was right behind her at .571 on 9 kills-1 error-14 attacks.
​​​​​​-- Senior libero Mallie Donohoe dropped in three of SPU's six service aces. One of those came during the early part of that decisive 8-0 run in Game 1.
-- Alaska Fairbanks had won four straight in the series, including a sweep in Seattle on Sept. 21.
-- With her 48 assists on Thursday, freshman setter Lindsey Lambert now has 853 for the season. Current program record holder Symone Tran had 832 as a freshman, and finished her career with 4,149.
-- Senior outside hitter Jaeden Hooker had five kills, putting her at exactly 300 for her career.
 
UP NEXT
Seattle Pacific concludes the season on Saturday at Alaska Anchorage, with the first serve at 8:00 p.m. PST. The Seawolves scored a 25-18, 25-15, 25-11 sweep in the GNAC opener on Sept. 19 in Brougham Pavilion. Anchorage got all it could handle from Saint Martin's in Thursday before finishing off a 6-24, 25-17, 26-24 sweep.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019
The Patty Center / Fairbanks, Alaska
 
Seattle Pacific 3, Alaska Fairbanks 1
 
Game scores—25-21, 26-24, 23-25, 25-21.
 
Service aces – SPU 6 (Donohoe 3), UAF 4 (Upchurch 2).
Kills – SPU 52 (Oddo 17, Dunham 12), UAF 50 (Weber 16).
Assists – SPU 52 (Lambert 48), UAF 50 (Whiting 43).
Digs – SPU 55 (Batiste 15, Donohoe 10), UAF 51 (Overbey 23).
Block assists / solo – SPU 12 / 5 solo (Dunham 3 / 1 solo, Lambert 3 / 1 solo, Batiste 2 / 2 solo), UAF 12  3 solo (Whiting 5 / 2 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – SPU 52-25-153—176 (Dunham 12-1-19—579, Gould 9-1-14—571), UAF 50-32-147—122 (Weber 16-7-37—243.
Attendance – 325.
 
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 13-14, 10-9 GNAC.  Alaska Fairbanks 14-13, 11-8 GNAC.
 
Next match
Seattle Pacific at Alaska Anchorage
Saturday, 8:00 p.m. PST
Alaska Airlines Center / Anchorage, Alaska